Declan Rice reacts as Gabriel takes cheeky swipe at Tottenham after Arsenal derby win
Gabriel has taken aim at Tottenham after his Arsenal side triumphed 4-1 in the North London Derby on Sunday.
The centre-back posted a photo of himself on the team bus on his Instagram account after the game with his Player of the Match trophy on the table, and the four of hearts showing within a deck of cards.
The 28-year-old played a vital role in a strong defensive showing from Mikel Arteta’s side away at their bitter rivals, as he and William Saliba repelled almost all of Spurs’ advances.
Braces from Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres saw Arsenal race to victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, as they extended their lead over Manchester City to five points at the top of the Premier League table.
Declan Rice sends message to Gabriel after North London Derby
Arsenal’s victory on the other side of North London has left their rivals looking nervously over their shoulder towards the relegation zone.
There was a venomous atmosphere inside the ground in the early stages of the game, but Tottenham are now just four points clear of the drop zone after their latest defeat.
However, that was of little concern to Arteta and his men, who have now tasted defeat just once in the last 11 North London Derbies in the Premier League.
Gabriel’s Instagram post has been well-received by the rest of the Gunners’ squad, with several players quick to jump into the comments and pile yet more misery on Spurs.
Declan Rice responded with a series of laughing emojis before adding three love hearts at the end, while Gabriel Martinelli simply commented: “Full on boss.”
Piero Hincapie responded to his teammate’s post by writing: “Complete chef,” while fellow defender Christian Mosquera also replied with laughing emojis.
Opta graphic shows true Arsenal dominance vs Tottenham
Arsenal clearly made their superior quality count during Sunday’s derby, but the sheer scale of their dominance was perhaps difficult to see at times during the game.
However, now that the dust has settled on the clash, a startling reveal from Opta has shown just how little control the hosts had.
Opta shared a graphic of the pitch at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium which showed the areas that each team had control over during the 90 minutes, and rather alarmingly for Spurs, they had more touches of the ball than their opponents in just four small areas of the pitch.
Three of those areas were inside their own defensive third, as they failed to make any real inroads into the Arsenal backline with any great effect.
The defeat was a serious setback for Igor Tudor in the first game of his interim reign, and he and his staff will surely be at panic stations once they look back at how little their team were actually in the game.