Arsenal centre back Gabriel has underlined the squad\u2019s appetite for the upcoming Carabao Cup final against Manchester City, saying he and William Saliba relish the personal battles with Erling Haaland and that his teammates \u201ccan\u2019t wait\u201d for the Wembley tie.<\/p>\n
The match offers more than a single trophy. Arsenal lead their upcoming opponents by nine points at the top of the Premier League table, advanced into the Champions League quarterfinals on Tuesday night, and will have the opportunity to reach the FA Cup semifinals after the international break.<\/p>\n
Critics have questioned Mikel Arteta\u2019s attritional style and a perceived reliance on set-pieces, but success at Wembley would mute those debates in north London. Arsenal are aiming for their first major trophy, excluding the Community Shield, in six years and this is their first Carabao Cup final since 2018, when they lost 3\u20130 to a superior Cityzens side.<\/p>\n
Gabriel has been a central figure in a resilient Arsenal defence since arriving after the club\u2019s 2020 FA Cup triumph. He said the group feel confident ahead of the occasion. \u201cIt\u2019s a really good feeling for this club to be in the final against a top team,\u201d he said (via The Athletic ). \u201cWe have a good feeling, and we can\u2019t wait for Sunday. We want to win every game we play. We know it\u2019s going to be a big battle, but we are ready and we\u2019ll try to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his own role he added: \u201cI\u2019m a defender, so I need to bring energy for my teammates and for our fans,\u201d he continued. \u201cI give everything when I\u2019m on the pitch. I try to push everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gabriel and Saliba have long contested duels with Haaland and the Brazilian made clear he welcomes the test. \u201cI enjoy every game, every striker,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s my job, so I like to battle. He is a top player, and I think he likes to play against me as well. It\u2019s fun\u2014we enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s wider platform this season has also been shaped by David Raya, described in the squad\u2019s coverage as having developed into one of the world\u2019s best goalkeepers in north London and standing in line for a third successive Golden Glove award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gabriel says he and Saliba enjoy duels with Haaland as Arsenal prepare for Carabao Cup final. Sunday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1067,172],"tags":[1066,1393,1047],"class_list":["post-9358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-carabao-cup","category-epl","tag-carabao-cup","tag-centre-back","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}