Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner - Arsenal
Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner - Arsenal
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Opposition managers who single out a centre-back pairing after a narrow defeat often do so when those players have made repeated interventions. Clean sheets preserved until the final stages of a match can rest on the quality and physicality shown against a high volume of aerial challenges. Those contributions become more noticeable once a late goal decides the outcome.
Praise that places the pairing among the best in the world is framed around the difficulty of the role. Managers of the winning side can echo the assessment by stating that the result would not have been possible without them. The combination of individual interventions and collective organisation is what keeps the scores level for long periods.
Concerns that followed the absence of a regular starter are addressed by the form of the current partnership. Settled defensive units that record multiple clean sheets across competitions reduce the immediate pressure created by injuries elsewhere. The performance in a single fixture can reinforce the wider picture of how the defence has adapted.
Oliver Glasner has named Arsenal’s centre-back pairing the best in the world after the 1-0 defeat at the City Ground. The Nottingham Forest manager highlighted Ezri Konsa and Gabriel Magalhaes following Noni Madueke’s late winner.
“Ezri Konsa and Gabriel are possibly the best centre-back pairing in the world at the moment,” Glasner claimed. Mikel Arteta agreed that the win was not possible without them. “The win was not possible without them, because they have so much quality and physicality, having to constantly deal with what we predicted to be 50 balls in the air,”
Arteta said. “I don’t know how many they had, but it would’ve been very close to that. And it’s not only that, it’s what happens after that ball and the consequences from that. To be on it constantly, every action delivered, is very tough. When you think it’s done, Wood and Hudson-Odoi come in and they start to have a different problem. Now you are man-to-man with the two centre-backs. But that’s the Premier League, and the quality of it which makes it the best league in the world.”
Konsa and Gabriel made several vital interventions to keep the scores level until the 80th minute and then protected the lead in the closing stages. Arsenal have recorded four clean sheets in seven Premier League matches and two more in the Champions League with the current defensive setup. The addition of Konsa has been described as relatively seamless in the absence of William Saliba.
Glasner’s assessment follows a match in which Forest created the greater share of the chances but were unable to score. The defensive partnership is presented as the foundation that allowed Arsenal to take the three points. Arteta’s comments reinforce the importance of the pairing against a direct approach.
The praise comes as Arsenal continue their response since the Brighton defeat. Whether the current combination remains in place once Saliba returns is a longer-term question, but the performance at the City Ground has drawn high-level recognition. The clean sheet and the late winner were secured on the back of that defensive display.