Gabriel just matched an Arsenal record no one saw coming

Arsenal's imperious record against Chelsea continues. Sunday's 2-1 victory extended the Gunners' undefeated streak against the Blues to 11 matches, winning eight of them, dating back to August 2021. In fact, centre-back Gabriel has never lost when facing their London rivals, equalling a club record.

As noted by Harvey Downes of Opta, Gabriel has taken on Chelsea 11 times and is yet to taste defeat, winning nine of them. This equals the all-time club unbeaten record held by Sylvain Wiltord, who also never lost any of his 11 encounters with the Blues, scoring four goals, most notably getting his hands on the FA Cup in 2002, following a 2-0 victory at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Well, Gabriel may have to wait until next season to break this record, or perhaps not. Mikel Arteta could still face Chelsea for a fifth time this season, should they be drawn against Liam Rosenior's side in the FA Cup, or both London clubs make it all the way to Budapest for the Champions League Final. This statistic, while perhaps a quirk, underlines that Gabriel is integral to this team.

Is Gabriel Arsenal's most important player

There are many members of this Arsenal squad that have to be considered their most irreplaceable player. David Raya, William Saliba, Jurriën Timber, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and others are all genuine candidates, but perhaps it is Gabriel.

Gabriel's Arsenal career statistics

Gabriel requires just three more goals to become Arsenal's all-time highest-scoring defender, with Laurent Koscielny's record very much in his sights. Meantime, his tally of 243 appearances is only bettered by 71 players in the club's entire existence, of which just 28 have represented the club in the 21st century, on track to surpass plenty of legends.

After arriving from Lille in 2020, Gabriel was one of the first players to buy into the Arteta project, scoring on his debut at an eerily empty Craven Cottage, a header from a corner, and that pretty much set the tone. This season, after suffering a thigh injury on international duty, Gabriel missed six Premier League games, of which they managed to win four without him, but perhaps points would not have been dropped at Villa Park and Stamford Bridge had he been there.

Similarly, after suffering a serious hamstring tear against Fulham on April Fool's Day, he sat out the final two months of last season. As good as understudy Jakub Kiwior was, who knows, Arteta's team would have given eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain an even greater run for their money had the Brazilian been part of their backline.

Known as both "the king of Brazil" and "our wall at the back", Arsenal fans regularly serenade Gabriel, professing their love to the big centre-back, underlining that he is one of the most popular players, and he'll be key to their hopes of silverware in the coming weeks, months and hopefully years.