For one brief moment, you might have mistaken Arsenal’s win over Brentford for a Genesis gig, when Collins and Gabriel came together in the box.
Instead of Phil and Peter though it was Nathan Collins and Gabriel Magalhaes, centre-halves of physical stature matching the musical reputation of their namesakes.
The confrontation was anything but collaborative or musical, though Gabriel was quickly joined by his footballing frontman William Saliba. Collins was quickly shouted down as the Premier League’s best defensive pairing showed they were prepared to back each other up on and off the ball.
Since first playing together on Saliba’s Arsenal debut in 2022, they have shared the pitch 53 times in the league, averaging a staggering 2.38 points per game. That trumps anything their title rivals can mount.
So what is the secret to a great centre-half partnership?
“Time, experience, dealing with certain situations, getting caught out, making mistakes, learning from them, coming back stronger, bouncing back,” says Martin Keown, who will be on TNT Sports duty on Tuesday night for Arsenal’s Champions League clash with Porto, where they will try to overturn a 1-0 deficit.
“They’ll be very proud of that clean sheets record.
“If you’re a defender in an Arsenal team, you don’t really get much credit because it’s all about the goals that are scored. In my day it was the same thing so we thought like we need to… If we concede, we’re gonna get criticism because they will say we’re the weak link in his team, and we made sure we weren’t.
“They’ll be doing the same building that reputation and they are. They’re strong. These two central defenders are really strong, quick.”
But it is not only about them. Keown formed a legendary partnership with Tony Adams in the 1990s, conceding just 17 goals in the entire 1998-99 league season, a record that seems entirely unbreakable.
And this version of the Gunners, as defensively sound as they are, will not threaten the Premier League clean sheets record of 25 either, set by Chelsea in 2005, even if they do not concede another goal all season. Arsenal lead the league with 11 but that mark set by Jose Mourinho’s side looks likely to stand the test of time. Football, people say, has changed.
But the value of a defensive midfielder who can both defend and attack remains the same.
“Declan Rice is really going to another level right now,” Keown says
“I was very much spoilt with Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit fighting for man of the match every week, [then later] Gilberto Silva and Ray Parlour. I’m not going to complain about what I had!
“His development has been huge because at the start he was looking like a central defender playing in midfield: he doesn’t look like that anymore.
“His finish the other day, that was a really difficult half-volley finish. He’s expecting to get assists and expecting to get goals.
“At West Ham, he was covering massive distances and a really important figurehead at the back but now he does both for Arsenal.”
Keown is not the only one to have noticed, with manager Mikel Arteta taking time to single out Rice after Arsenal’s eighth league win in a row on Saturday, a late 2-1 victory over Brentford in which the England midfielder scored his sixth goal of the season.
“He’s playing at a very consistent and excellent level in different positions, in a new club,” Arteta said.
“There’s a lot of things that have to go together and it’s not easy, he’s done it with such determination, with the passion and quality that he knows he plays the game and understands the game, and he’s delivering some big moments for us.”
What Rice, Gabriel and Saliba all share is their integral role in Arsenal’s league-leading set piece machine. A mid-season trip to Dubai, since which Arteta’s men are unbeaten domestically, was where Rice proved himself to staff as a corner-taker, and the two defenders have six goals between them, all from corners, directly or indirectly.
With the title race arguably close than ever before, those strikes have been invaluable to Arsenal’s challenge.
“I think they could do something big in Europe, Arsenal this season,” Keown adds.
“They’re in that sort of tunnel now that you need to get into where you eat, breathe, sleep, football. And it looks like they’re on to wait on their way to doing something special.”
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