Arsenal’s 10 Best Signings Ever Under Arsene Wenger
By Josh Sippie
4. Gilberto Silva
For all the praise that gets heaped on Patrick Vieira, and rightly so, Gilberto Silva was his midfield mate. Silva was even more physical than Vieira, and he even had a handful of goals to boot. He put up 24 goals in 237 appearances for the Gunners.
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Silva was brought in the year before Arsenal’s Invincible season for a measly £4.5 million. The following year he would help the Gunners to the most impossible of seasons. But he was not done there. The ‘invisible wall’, as Silva was known, remained at Arsenal for another four years, holding down the base of the midfield.
Gilberto was known for his ability to go unnoticed and yet still make a huge impact on the game. As Wenger said when he first acquired the Brazilian: “What I like was the fact that he kept things simple. He can play all across the midfield but the holding role just in front of the defence is what he does best,” as quoted by Goal.com. It was that simplicity that made him so wonderfully effective.
Moving on, we have only Invincibles left on this list. The only question is what order do they go in?
Next: Number 3