Arsenal: Romelu Lukaku’s Silence Bolsters Gabriel’s Stay

Arsenal may have dropped points at Goodison Park, but they silenced Everton’s main threat, Romelu Lukaku, and that bolsters defensive stance.

It was always going to be a tough match, waltzing into Goodison Park, facing down a frustrated Everton side that is always boasting a ton of talent, and Arsenal felt the brunt of that frustration as their best efforts went frustrated.

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It could all be summarized by the three balls cleared off the line in stoppage time.

Through it all though, Romelu Lukaku was dead silent. The big Belgian striker, touted far and wide as one of the best strikers in the world, found the Gunner’s defense too stingy to break down. So much so that he was doing that Alexis thing where he would drop into wide and deep positions hoping to get a touch on then ball.

It didn’t work.

Lukaku had a massively quiet day, accumulating just 49 touches, completing less than half of his passes and only managing two shots, both off target.

Again, that is not what a “world class” striker should be doing at home against a defense that is missing one of their top center backs.

I also think that all of this criticism of the center back duo that we did employ is ill-founded. And this ill-foundedness stems from this fact that Lukaku was shut down by this defense that so many are blaming on the loss.

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Gabriel in particular is taking the brunt of the criticism, but it was Gabriel who on numerous occasions slowed down the bulldozing Belgian and saw the threat safely aside.

So while it might be easy to look at this defense and call it dysfunctional, we still have to give them credit where it is due. And it is due a ton of credit. Their ability to block shots and cut out crosses was pretty stellar throughout the match, as Petr Cech went largely untested.

Again, another testament to the stoutness of this defense.

The fact that the one cross that did get through ended up in the back of the net and the fact that zonal marking is still not working should not detract from an otherwise successful day. Calling a loss successful makes me queasy, but you have to give credit where it is due.

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These two center backs – namely Gabriel, thrown into the fire – deserve credit for what they were able to do against a fired up attack.