Mikel Arteta was delighted with Piero Hincapie’s performance on his first Premier League start on Sunday, admitting it’s not easy to fill Gabriel Magalhaes’ boots.
Given his injury shortly after joining Arsenal this summer, Piero Hincapie was always going to face a bit of a wait to get chances in the Gunners’ starting lineup.
Even when the Bayer Leverkusen loanee got fit again, he faced a battle for starts against Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel Magalhaes, both of whom had made an excellent start to the campaign.
Fellow summer signing Cristhian Mosquera had also impressed in a few appearances, potentially pushing Hincapie further down the pecking order.
Yet things quickly changed with the confirmation of Gabriel’s injury over the international break.
Arsenal needed someone to step into a starting role, and Hincapie was the logical choice, allowing Calafiori to remain at left-back and Mosquera to remain an alternative to William Saliba at right-centre-back.
The big catch was that Hincapie was yet to start a Premier League fixture for the Gunners, and he had to kick things off with a north London derby match against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Thankfully, it all went pretty well. Though Arsenal didn’t keep a clean sheet due to a freak long-range effort from Richarlison, Spurs definitely struggled to create good chances, and the Gunners won the match 4-1.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mikel Arteta praised Hincapie for stepping up, particuarly as a replacement for one of Arsenal’s players of the season so far in Gabriel.
“Big credit to Piero [Hincapie], because that’s a massive challenge, to have your Premier League debut starting against your biggest rivals in a really special day against top players up front, to replace Gabi,” Arteta said.
“It’s not easy at all, he did it in a really convincing way, that’s his personality. As I said before, he’s a warrior, he’s somebody that faces any challenge, and he certainly did that on Sunday.”
The task now is to keep up that same level for Wednesday night’s game against Champions League leaders Bayern Munich, then again for Sunday’s game away to 2nd-placed Premier League side Chelsea.
If Arsenal can continue to show strong defensive form across those two matches, it will certainly build a lot of confidence for the next month without Gabriel.