Arsenal"s new signing Gabriel Paulista can help get the best out of fellow defender Per Mertesacker, according former captain and centre-back Frank McLintock.
The Brazilian arrived from Villarreal in the January transfer window and has been used sparingly by Arsene Wenger, making three appearances in all competitions since his move.
When asked about Arsenal"s increasingly stoic defence, McLintock told Perform: “It wouldn"t be harder to be tighter at the back.
“Mertesacker obviously has a lot of caps and he"s been a wonderful player for Germany, but he"s not had his best season.
“He hasn"t been at his best, although he played well [against West Ham] on Saturday, and the new boy Gabriel has come in but he hasn"t really been tested out a great deal.
“He looked mobile, put in a fantastic tackle a couple of weeks ago [against Everton] so I like the look of him. He"s got to have the time to settle down as that was a position that was causing us a problem.
“We lost [Thomas] Vermaelen [to Barcelona] and why we didn"t replace him I"ll never know.
“We should have had a ready-made replacement and hopefully Gabriel can be the guy."
