Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes made fun of Amadou Onana’s celebration following his Player of the Match performance in the Gunners’ win over Aston Villa on Tuesday night.
Following Aston Villa’s win over Arsenal earlier this month, Villa midfielder Amadou Onana could be seen in post-match footage celebrating the victory in a unique way.
The footage shared on social media showed Onana counting up the three points on his fingers, before miming putting them in his pocket and zipping it up.
But after Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Villa on Tuesday night, Gabriel Magalhaes returned the favour, miming putting the three points in his own pocket in exactly the same way. The clips from the two games can be seen here.
Gabriel isn’t one to let disrespect slide, and he’s made a habit of getting his own back when the opportunity arises. Onana is just the latest victim on a long list.
“Those sort of things spur you on,” Gabriel said afterwards, when asked about the celebration. “It’s good fun. It’s fun for them, it’s fun for us as well. Like I said, we’ll get the three points.”
As for the defender’s actual performance, it was an excellent display for his first game back in the starting lineup after injury. With a goal and a clean sheet (up until he left the pitch), it’s little surprise he was voted the Player of the Match.
“At the moment he stepped on the pitch, you could see the difference of, you know, our back line, you know, the way we defend,” Gabriel Jesus said of his teammate afterwards. “This guy loves to defend the same way I love to attack. And then obviously he loves to score goals as well.”
“He’s been out for six weeks, that’s a lot at this level,” Mikel Arteta added. “Then to play against a team like this, with open spaces, with one of the best strikers in the league, constantly pinning you and dragging you into the wrong areas is very difficult to do, and on top of that, he scored the goal.”
Gabriel earned the right to celebrate back at Onana after the game, on a good night for the centre-back overall.