Gabriel: Arsenal lost confidence and weren’t focused

Mark Holmes
Arsenal: Face tricky start to season

Arsenal: Face tricky start to season

Gabriel says Arsenal weren’t going into games fully focused recently but have now regained their confidence after beating Watford.

The Gunners eased to a 4-0 victory over the Hornets on Saturday to record their first home win since beating Leicester City on Valentine’s Day.

Alexis Sanchez, Alex Iwobi, Hector Bellerin and Theo Walcott scored the goals which gave Arsene Wenger’s side a result which their dominant performance against a lacklustre Watford deserved and backed up an impressive victory at Everton before the international break.

And, after Wenger said earlier in the week he would talk to record-signing Mesut Ozil about his comments that Arsenal had shot themselves in the foot in the title race, the Frenchman will welcome the rediscovered optimism among his squad.

“We’ve regained our confidence once again,” Gabriel said after the win.

“Not so long ago we lacked a little in confidence and we weren’t going into the match fully focused, so with a victory, we come back with a better self-esteem.

“Now, with the second win, it will make us grow more and I’m sure next time we will improve even more.”

Gabriel, who has established himself as the first-choice partner for Laurent Koscielny at the expense of Per Mertesacker in recent weeks, knows Arsenal now need Leicester and Tottenham to drop points – but believes the title is still there for the Gunners.

“It’s not every game that we’ll have an excellent performance like today,” he said.

“We were just much more focused against Watford and that’s why things went much better and we recorded a positive result.

“The team are now very excited with the last two wins in the league, which were two difficult games, but we’re all thinking positively that we can win.

“We’re also hoping for some fault on Leicester and Tottenham’s part and if we carry on the way that we have been lately, that we can definitely win the league.”