Gabriel Magalhaes has rubbed salt in Ivan Toney’s wounds by ruthlessly taunting him after Arsenal’s convincing win over Brentford.
Toney’s first-ever England call-up rendered him speechless, and up until today, he hadn’t recovered.
On Sunday afternoon, Gabriel Magalhaes became the next player to make fun of the defeated opponent in the ongoing Twitter battle between the players of Brentford and Arsenal.
Within minutes of the 3-0 victory for Arsenal at the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday, the Brazilian center-back took to social media to make fun of Brentford players.
And, as was to be expected, he continued the back-and-forth that started in August by posting, “Nice kick about with the boys.”
Ivan Toney, a striker for Brentford, was the first to make a social media post using exact words to taunt Arsenal after his team’s 2-0 opening-night victory over Arsenal last season.
In reaction to that, after Arsenal defeated Brentford 2-1 at the Emirates in February, Arsenal’s now-departed forward Alexandre Lacazette gave a reciprocal response.
Also, after Arsenal handily defeated Southampton on Sunday afternoon to retake the top spot in the Premier League standings, the trend continued but this time around, Gabriel Magalhaes spearheaded the clap-back.
According to the Arsenal All or Nothing documentary on Amazon, Mikel Arteta used Toney’s tweet as motivation to get his team pumped up for the rematch.
Before the match in February, Arteta gave a pregame speech, saying: ‘All week we have prepared, we have looked at everything, we want to play as much as possible.’
‘I insist here, and this is great, but what is going to make the difference now is what happens in both boxes.
‘Before I go, because it’s still in my stomach, and I have managed to keep it in my stomach for six months. This is Toney after the game when we played them at Brentford.
‘You know what he did, you know his tweet? ‘Nice kickabout with the boys this afternoon’. So, today they play in our house guys, and there is only one team in that f***** pithead.
‘Only team, they don’t play, we take the f****** ball, we take the game and we go for it. Let’s win this f****** game let’s go.’
How did Arsenal win Brentford on Sunday, September 18
In the 17th minute, William Saliba scored by heading in Bukayo Saka’s corner to give Arteta’s team the lead.
Gabriel Jesus headed in Granit Xhaka’s cross for his fifth goal for the Gunners since signing from Manchester City.
And early in the second half, Fabio Vieira, making his full debut, put the game to bed with a spectacular strike from 25 yards out that kissed the post on its way in.
With six victories out of their first seven league games, Arsenal now leads the table ahead of Manchester City and Tottenham as we enter the international break.
Additionally, Arteta stated that his team’s victory on Sunday demonstrated how much character the group had grown since losing to Brentford the previous season.
Ivan Toney get called up
Toney had a fantastic week because he was named in Gareth Southgate’s 28-man squad for the final two World Cup warm-up games against Germany and Italy.
Bees manager Thomas Frank claimed that when he broke the news to the typically outspoken striker over the phone, the latter was at a loss for words.
Given that he has already scored five Premier League goals this season, he was anticipated to end his England call-up at lunchtime by frightening the host, Arsenal defense.
But following Bukayo Saka’s exquisite, curling corner, it was a bad start for the former Newcastle striker, who was out-jumped by Saliba for the visitors’ first goal.
Saliba did a fantastic job of snatching him up in the first half, preventing him from making any critical touches.
With tweets about Toney being taken out of French center-back Saliba’s pockets, social media went into turmoil.
In fairness, Toney did blast a peach of a free kick, a la Matt Le Tissier, barely inches past the bar after the break.
If he wants to stake out a spot at the Qatar World Cup, coach Gareth Southgate will undoubtedly need to see more of that.
Given that Toney earned his place in England the difficult way by being rejected by Leicester at the age of 14, saving Northampton from relegation at the age of 18, and then being dumped by Newcastle, many will be supporting his cause.
Prior to settling down at Peterborough, he had played for Barnsley, Shrewsbury, Wigan, and Scunthorpe in League One.
He is now Brentford’s first player to be called up by England since May 1939, making history for the club.
