What William Saliba did to Gabriel after signing new contract with Arsenal before announcement

William Saliba put pen to paper on his new Arsenal contract prior to the trip to Newcastle, football.london understands, with all that remains being an official announcement. Having signed a five-year deal with the club, the agreement represents a major moment in the club’s project.

With such noise surrounding the Frenchman's future, Mikel Arteta and Andrea Berta have shown that despite links to Real Madrid, Arsenal is the best place for Saliba to commit the best years of his career. Not only that, but he follows Gabriel Magalhaes’ decision to renew earlier in the summer.

For many, Saliba and Gabriel represent the greatest defensive partnership in world football. The fact that Arsenal have guaranteed their commitment to the club over the coming seasons showcases the belief that exists in where Arteta is taking the club.

Saliba celebrated with his defensive partner after the Brazilian scored a 96th winning goal on Tyneside. Rising to meet a corner from Martin Odegaard, Gabriel managed to score yet another headed set piece in a monumentally huge moment.

It follows similar goals at Tottenham and Manchester City, and Saliba made it clear his thoughts on the moment. Pictured pointing down at Gabriel, he wanted the thousands of fans celebrating that very moment to give the 27-year-old his plaudits.

Gabriel possesses, of course, his own song dedicated solely to him from the Arsenal fans, aptly named: ‘The King of Brazil!’ However, he was arguably lucky to end the game on such a high with two key moments falling away from his favour.

The first was the Newcastle goal which replays showed Gabriel going to ground too easily allowing Nick Woltemade to head in relatively unchallenged. While in the aftermath, cameras spotted Gabriel tussling with the German from kick-off, even raising his arms.

Had he made contact, he could very easily have seen red. Against Manchester City, Gabriel was caught out of position, and afterwards faced scrutiny over being perhaps too emotional at the start of a narrative-driven clash after several seasons of built-up tension.

Gabriel is undoubtedly among the best centre-halves in the world, but he still has his flaws. In Saliba’s celebration, he clearly wanted the attention to be on his partner for the right reasons, and hopefully, Gabriel will build again from here and reach even higher heights.

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