Title race: Arsenal's defensive duo will try to stop Erling Haaland again | Premier League

The final whistle had already sounded, but that didn't stop Erling Haaland and Gabriel Magalhães. After battling for 90 minutes during the game, 0-0 draw in March At the Etihad between Manchester City and Arsenal, the Brazilian defender was not willing to back down.

As his team-mates shook hands, Gabriel confronted Haaland, whose late penalty claim had been waved away by referee Anthony Taylor. Pep Guardiola was first on the scene to act as peacemaker as tensions rose, pushing the Norwegian striker before the two players eventually embraced. “Good game,” Haaland said.

Almost six months later, the battle resumes. Video published The Premier League headline on Thursday, titled “All the matchups: Haaland v Saliba and Gabriel” and asking who will prevail on Sunday whets the appetite as the country’s deadliest striker goes head-to-head with the country’s meanest defence.

Haaland has scored just once against an Arsenal team that included Gabriel and William Saliba, in City win 3-1 at the Emirates in February 2023. He scored again in the 4-1 thrashing Less than two months later, Arsenal were forced to face Rob Holding, who is probably still having nightmares about his next visit to the Etihad, after replacing Saliba, who was nursing a back injury.

But, as Saliba was keen to point out this week, Haaland has gone three games without scoring against Mikel Arteta's side if you include last season's Community Shield, where Arsenal The Frenchman won on penalties. “He is a great player,” said the Frenchman. “One of the best in the world. It is difficult to play against him, but last season we did everything possible to stop him from scoring and he didn’t. I am happy because Gabriel is good, he helps me a lot.”

The defender from Bondy, the same hometown as Kylian Mbappé at Paris Saint-Germain peripheries – He has impressed with his composure, recovery speed and ability on the ball since breaking into the Arsenal team at the start of the 2022-23 season. He will again be tasked with trying to anticipate where to be to stop City's free-flowing attacks, while it will be up to Gabriel, whose representatives have reportedly already begun talks to extend his contract which runs until 2026, to engage Haaland in a physical battle that should be worth the effort on its own. Saliba and Gabriel were once again outstanding against Atalanta in the Champions League Arsenal on Thursday recorded their fourth clean sheet in five games this season and Arteta is confident they will improve further.

“They’re in a great moment and they’ve been very, very consistent over the last two seasons together,” he said. “There’s incredible chemistry there and you can feel it. They gave us a lot tonight; I think they were both exceptional.”

A feature of Gabriel's performance in Bergamo was the number of headers he won as the Italian side piled on the pressure in the second half, with Italy striker Mateo Retegui looking beaten when he was substituted late on after David Raya miraculously saved his penalty twice. Gabriel knows he will have an even tougher task against Haaland, and Arteta hopes the plan will stop the forward who has scored a record nine goals in the first four games. Premier League The outings will bear fruit again.

“When you look at the statistics and the amount of goals he scores, you realise that he is one of the main sources,” said the coach. “We have to stop him from scoring. We always look at the players and their strengths and how we can counteract them.”

Three tough away games in eight days could not have come at a worse time given Martin Ødegaard's ankle injury which will keep the Arsenal captain sidelined for the foreseeable future. Arteta's side have assured A beautiful victory over the Spurs Arsenal had 27% possession last season, but their game plan will again be based on sitting back and trying to counter-attack.

Arteta will be aware of criticism from some quarters for not playing well against their biggest rivals last time out, but he is unlikely to change tactics given how effective they have been. “They failed to win the league and people can say: ‘Oh, if they had won that game, those two points…’” former Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas told the BBC this week. “But Mikel is too intelligent for this. He knows exactly what he is doing. He always has a game plan.”