Gabriel Magalhaes has chipped in with several goals for Arsenal, but where does he rank among the highest-scoring centre-backs in Premier League history?
The Brazilian has made a name for himself as a goalscoring defender and has become particularly lethal from set-piece situations.
Given how dangerous Arsenal have become in that department, it’s no surprise that the 28-year-old has scored so many goals over the past six years.
In fact, since making his debut for Arsenal in 2020-21, he’s scored more goals (20), than any other Premier League defender.
The likes of Fabian Schar, Virgil van Dijk, Michael Keane, Kurt Zouma, John Stones, Ben Mee and Lewis Dunk have also scored double figures in that time, but none have scored more than Gabriel.
“That shows a lot and not only set-pieces strategy but also mentality,” Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino told BBC MOTD when describing Gabriel’s goal against Newcastle back in September.
“Other teams if they get six/seven corners and they don’t score, they start to lose belief in the qualities but for us it’s a matter of keep doing what we do, doing it at the highest level and in the end the last one, last second, we scored and I’m really happy.”
In the wider context of the all-time standings, the Brazilian defender moved up to joint 14th following his latest goal against Newcastle.
He’s now only two goals away from matching Sol Campbell’s Premier League tally and is only three goals away from securing a place in the top 10.
Unsurprisingly, John Terry tops the list with a mammoth 41 league goals. Second on the list is Ian Marshall with 33 goals, although he did spend a portion of his career playing as a forward.
The rest of the top five is then made up of Virgil van Dijk, Gary Cahill and William Gallas.
Providing that Gabriel remains in the Premier League for the foreseeable future, there’s a chance that he could retire as the second-highest-scoring centre-back in the league’s history.
Admittedly, catching up to Terry’s record of 41 goals does seem out of reach, even for Gabriel.
As of writing, he’s scored 20 goals in 188 appearances, averaging a goal in the Premier League every 816 minutes. For context, that’s a better minutes per goal ratio than Terry averaged during his time in the top flight.
Here’s the full breakdown of the highest-scoring centre-backs in Premier League history.
1\. John Terry – 41 goals 2. Ian Marshall – 33 goals 3. Virgil van Dijk – 29 goals 4. Gary Cahill – 28 goals 5. William Gallas – 25 goals 6. Joleon Lescott – 24 goals =7. Matt Elliott – 22 goals =7. Laurent Koscielny – 22 goals =7. Sami Hyypia – 22 goals =10. Robert Huth – 21 goals =10. Craig Dawson – 21 goals =12. Sol Campbell – 20 goals =12. Gabriel Magalhaes – 20 goals =14. Michael Keane – 19 goals =14. Ugo Ehiogu – 19 goals =16. Fabian Schar – 18 goals =16. Nathan Ake – 18 goals =16. Vincent Kompany – 18 goals =16. Phil Jagielka – 18 goals =19. Frank Leboeuf – 17 goals
\=19. Gareth Southgate – 17 goals
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