Lineker reserves special praise for Arsenal ‘warrior’ against Spurs as he makes title prediction

Gary Lineker has hailed Arsenal centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes as “a warrior” after the Gunners beat Tottenham 1-0 in the North London Derby.

Arsenal took bragging rights on Sunday with Gabriel’s second-half header giving the Gunners all three points at the Tottenham Hostpur Stadium.

Doubts were cast ahead of the match of Arsenal’s title credentials after Man City’s 2-1 win over Brentford and the unavailability of Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice for the Spurs match.

However, Arsenal are now two points behind Pep Guardiola’s side with the Gunners able to leapfrog Man City next weekend if they beat the Citizens at the Etihad Stadium.

Gabriel has formed a brilliant partnership with William Saliba in the heart of the Arsenal backline with the Gunners possessing the best defence in the Premier League last term.

And they have the joint-best defence this term too with Liverpool and Mikel Arteta’s side only conceding a goal each in their first four Premier League matches.

“It wasn’t a great game or a great spectacle actually,” Lineker said on The Rest is Football podcast .

“I was expecting it to be a bit more end-to-end but Arsenal are so hard to beat, they defend so well, they really do.

“We often talk about [William] Saliba but that partnership with Gabriel is very strong. Gabriel is a warrior, isn’t he?

“He’s a player you’d really want on your side. And he does chip in with the odd goal. He’s tough to mark in the box and a real threat.”

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Arsenal boss Arteta was happy with his side’s dogged defensive display against Tottenham and was delighted to get the three points without Rice and Odegaard.

Arteta said after the match: “Super happy obviously. We know what it means to our club and our people to win a north London derby.

“We had good moments and others where we had to suffer. We suffered because we had to adapt the plan because of the players that we had available.

“I loved it. The second we started to get that news (Odegaard injury), the team got hungrier and hungrier to play that game. It’s a big compliment to everybody at the club to behave in a certain way.

“It’s a tough week coming and instead of finding any excuses we did the opposite. We faced the challenge, played with courage and acknowledged the qualities we had to win the game.

“We have people that are hard and have thick skin. They love the game and we love winning.

“In order to love the game and win you have to do things that people call ugly. Enjoying those ugly things is a big compliment to this team right now. When you’re able to do that, normally you get a good gift.”