Gabriel looks set to start again for Arsenal on Sunday against Leicester and Nacho Monreal has revealed that his Brazilian teammate needs to work on his English in order to improve his football in England.

Speaking to the media at his pre-game press conference, Arsene Wenger hinted that Per Mertesacker could, once again, find himself on the bench.

Using the guise of ‘resting’ his vice captain, the boss is probably more concerned about Leicester’s pace, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him switching and changing players to best counter the opposition – that is what he is paid for, after all.

On the back of that, as they tend to do, Arsenal have produced a post on Gabriel in which they interview Nacho Monreal.

“It’s good that I can speak Spanish with him on the pitch, but Gabby knows he needs to improve his English because that will make the football easier,” Nacho told the matchday programme.

Gabriel Paulista of Arsenal and Nacho Monreal of Arsenal salute the fans (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
Learning the language (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

“Myself, Hector, everyone is helping him every day with it because it’s much better for the team.

“I know exactly how he feels, because it was the same for me when I first arrived,” he continued. “When my English got better, I got better on the pitch too, because when you are playing one of the most important things is confidence.

“If you are confident in yourself, you feel better because you are more relaxed and you feel the authority to correct things you see. You feel more involved in the group.”

The 25-year-old centreback has made 11 Premier League appearances this season whereas Per has made 18.

Should he start, it will be the fourth consecutive game he has been picked from the beginning. Earlier in the season he also amassed a run of four before missing the first game against Leicester through suspension following his red card against Chelsea in *that* game at Stamford Bridge (side-eyes Diego Costa and Mike Dean).