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Arsene Wenger Speaks Out On Arsenal’s New €15m Signing

By on January 29, 2015

Arsene Wenger has backed new signing Gabriel Paulista to adapt quickly to English football and explained the reasons for bringing him to the club.

Gabriel became our second signing of the January window after finally completing a €15m (£11.3m) move from Villarreal on Wednesday.

The boss has now expressed his delight at bringing the 24-year-old defender to Arsenal and believes he has all the attributes needed to be a success in the Premier League.

Arsene also explained that it would have been ‘irresponsible’ of him had he not signed another defender this month after Mathieu Debuchy was ruled out for three months with a dislocated shoulder.

Wenger told Arsenal.com:

“He has good pace, he’s good in the challenge and he’s tall – so he can adapt to English football,” the manager told Arsenal Player.

“Maybe it will take some time to adapt completely, but overall it’s very good to have him.

“He’s very ambitious, focused and serious. That’s important at a club like ours – you need to have a complete focus on your job. He has that.

“I like the players who come from nowhere and show they can adapt. From Brazil, he has [then] adapted to Spain. That means he has already made it and adapted in another country. That’s another important quality.

“We needed another centre back because we have lost Debuchy. Monreal can play centre back and we are a bit short there if something happens, especially with the Achilles [problem] of Koscielny since the start of the season.

“We needed some cover, or we would not be responsible. [Gabriel] can play right back and left back, and that is of course a good quality as well.”

Gabriel is available for Sunday’s clash with Aston Villa but he’s highly unlikely to start. The best we can probably hope for is to see him make a second half substitute appearance, but it will be interesting to see how Arsene uses him during the second half of the season.

The fact he’s made a point of saying Gabriel can play in the full back positions may suggest that he could fill-in at right-back on occasion while Debuchy is out, but we’ll have to wait on see……….

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