Arsenal’s 9 Central Defenders Since Gabriel Paulista – Ranked

Ross Kennerley

Arsenal, Shkodran Mustafi (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

Arsenal have finally (basically) signed Gabriel Magalhães. All is well.

Sure, while we’ve waited the great oceans have dried up. Birds have fallen from the sky. George R. R. Martin has released the latest Game of Thrones novel. Mikel Arteta is now bald. But hey, it’s happened! Kind of. Hurry up Arsenal.

OK, perhaps the Arteta bit isn’t going to happen, ever, but at least Arsenal fans can now rejoice as one of the most dragged on sagas of the transfer window is just an announcement video away from being completed. At last, a new centre-back has waltzed his way through the pearly gates – that’s the Emirates, by the way – yes, Gabriel Magalhães has entered the fray.

Some of us may be a tad sceptical about his arrival. Not for any reason other than that his fellow countryman and namesake, Gabriel Paulista, didn’t quite live up to his billing. This despite him looking like a ferociously intimidating human being nigh-on 99% of the time.

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Difficult to overlook, as well, is that Pascal Cygan joined Arsenal from Lille 18 years ago. He wasn’t, well……very good. At all.

Enough negativity, though. This time, genuinely, it appears as if the Gunners are getting their central defensive recruitment right. People are hanging on the words of a few Ligue 1 experts, since most of us have only seen Gabriel play in the Champions League when he was on the losing side to Chelsea twice in last season’s group stages, but the outlook is distinctly more positive.

In regards to recent transfer failings, let’s take a look at all eight central defenders who’ve been brought to north London since the OG Gabriel arrived in January 2015. Even better than that, let’s rank them. All £110m(ish) worth of them. Please, feel free to disagree wholeheartedly. You probably will anyway, even if it’s a pretty rotten selection.

9. Shkodran Mustafi

The gift that keeps on giving….for everyone on planet earth who doesn’t support Arsenal.

Have you ever been more incensed by a player than Shkodran Mustafi? Have you ever been willing to part with your life savings and everything you own just to never have to watch someone kick a ball for your football club before? Have you ever seen such an endless stream of calamity from one individual? Have you ever seen anyone quite as inept at doing their job? Have you ever, ever, been at any point grateful that Mustafi was an Arsenal player?

Baffling as it may seem, yes. Well, I have anyway.

How anyone so utterly useless – who cost £35m – could actually at one point be the best central defender at the club is of no praise to the German, but instead an damning indictment of just how woeful defensive recruitment has been at the club over the past few years.

With him injured for the FA Cup final, there was genuine cause for concern. But that wasn’t because Mustafi was good, everyone else was just so dire. The (very) brief moments of joy he brought do not, at all, outweigh the festering cesspool of a legacy he’ll leave behind for himself.

Lovely guy, appalling footballer.

8. Sokratis Papastathopoulos

Arsenal, Sokratis (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

At the time, this came across as a neat bit of business. A vastly experienced centre-back joining from a major European side, who’d won titles in his career; was aggressive, yet meticulous; commanding, but quick off the mark. For £14.5m, too? Yeah, Sven ‘Diamond Eyes’ Mislintat working his magic.

No. No, and no.

The amount of decent games Sokratis had for Arsenal can be counted on one hand. Honestly, it’s been so long since he went a game without a distinguishable error that it’s hard to recall whether he ever went through 90 minutes unscathed.

He was past it when he came. He looks beyond the realms of even bang average at present. Please, Serie A, take him.

7. Konstantinos Mavropanos

Signed from Greek giants PAS Giannina, Konstantinos Mavropanos’ arrival was always meant to be with an eye on future involvement, no immediate foray into the first team.

Another one of Mislintat’s recommendations, the youngster impressed enough during his early training sessions to earn a place in the Europa League squad just one month later, making his Premier League debut in April of 2018.

At times, he actually looked good. Other times, less so. Is he Arsenal quality? Well, he’s got a mistake in him, so yes (ha..ha). But not that. Is he good enough to improve the ranks? With a very premature view you’d have to say no.

Hence why he signed a new long-term deal with the club and was sent on loan to Mislintat’s new side. If he fulfills his promise and garners interest from afar, then the club could scoop a tidy profit.

6. David Luiz

Arsenal, David Luiz (Photo by Sam Bagnall – AMA/Getty Images)

Oh David Luiz. You wonderfully infuriating man.

Capable of putting in an utterly dazzling display of defensive excellence in a major semi-final one day, then the next trying to flick the ball over a striker in his own six-yard box.

Smashing (unwanted) records in his debut season with the club, but also lifting silverware, the overriding emotion is still that he still just isn’t very good. What puts him out in front of the other two though, is what he can offer in the dressing room, as well as that when he is playing well, it’s actually to a decent standard.

Just a shame those performances are one in every five.

5. Pablo Mari

How do you judge someone who has barely kicked a ball for the club? Answer: cautiously.

Parting with an initial loan fee, and then a further sum to make make the deal permanent, all we know about Pablo Mari stems from two 90 minute outings in which he kept clean sheets, and then the 24-minute cameo against Manchester City were he suffered his injury setback.

All in all, not a lot. He looked comfortable against Portsmouth, a tad off the pace against West Ham and hopelessly out of his depth against City. A mixed bag, it’s fair to say.

Only time will tell, but Arteta clearly favours his fellow countryman. Can’t see him starting games outside of domestic cup competitions, however.

4. Krystian Bielik

What? The guy who made only two senior appearances for the club in five seasons? Yes. That guy.

Not for his output, not for any one standout moment. Truth be told, Krystian Bielik was signed for under £2.5m and sold for closer to £10m. Profit! We like that!

And…..that’s about it.

3. William Saliba

With a grand total of zero Premier League outings for the club, in at number three is William Saliba. Why doesn’t Mari get the same love? Promise. That’s why.

Fending off interest from across Europe to secure the Frenchman’s signature, it’s impossible to ignore the avalanche of praise that’s come with the 19-year-old, to the point where he’s already being tipped to be the club’s defensive saviour. That is getting way ahead of ourselves, since Saliba is still only a kid, completely untested on English shores.

A combative, technical elegant and assured kid, mind you.

We’ll likely not see the best of Saliba for a few years yet. Everyone is pinning their hopes on him hitting the ground running, and while possible, that only puts him on a pedestal high enough for him to fall right back off. Tempering expectations is paramount, but with no single person expecting him to be anything other than brilliant, that’s genuine cause for optimism.

Still, we’ll have to wait and see.

2. Gabriel Paulista

It really was a mixed bag with Gabriel. On his day he could be a frightening, battering ram of a defender. Yet on others he’d be a rabbit in the headlights, lost at sea without any grasp of the local nautical lingo.

We mustn’t forget, also, that he did do a number on Romelu Lukaku more than once. Well, twice, but that’s still more than one.

Sold at a peculiar time when Arsenal were awash with injuries and ageing centre-backs, his departure raised a few eyebrows, but there was a general acceptance that he was never going to become an elite central defender. It simply boiled down to raising the funds when the opportunity arose.

Not the worst, but certainly not the best, he’ll probably be most fondly remembered for utterly despising Diego Costa. Something we can all get on board with. Won two FA Cups, too.

1. Rob Holding

How mad is this? A player who is up for sale this summer, has looked largely terrible since his return from injury and who is nowhere near most fans’ starting XI, is the best central defender Arsenal have signed since Gabriel.

Hardly much competition though, is there? But with us football fans being a fickle bunch, it’s easy to brush over Rob Holding’s earlier years at the club. He was being tipped as a future England captain, never mind Arsenal’s.

There was even that 22-game unbeaten run in which Holding played an integral part prior to him cruelly damaging his knee at Old Trafford. Of course, that run papered over plenty of cracks, but the Englishman – signed for a measly £2m – looked at the top of his game.

We can’t be overly critical of his displays since returning given the length of his layoff, but just like Saliba now, there was a point were fans were adamant that we’d see the ‘real Arsenal’ as soon as Holding regained his fitness. That obviously didn’t pan out.

Moving on from present day, his superb FA Cup final displays will live long in the memory. Thanks for those, Rob. Really.

With new recruits coming in it appears as if Holding’s time is up. However, he, unlike many of the others listed, can leave with his head held high.

Ross Kennerley

Ross Kennerley was brought up on the joys of Swedish football on the southern coast, where an unhealthy obsession with sport began. Lover of all things that involve other people running around more than him, his love for Arsenal and football in general is, as some would say, over the top.