Micah Richards has warned Arsenal star Gabriel Magalhaes his decision to mock Viktor Gyokeres with his goal celebration will ‘come back to bite him’.
Gabriel was on the scoresheet as Arsenal thrashed Sporting Lisbon 5-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Gyokeres had a quiet night up against Gabriel and William Saliba but has otherwise been Europe’s most prolific marksmen this season with his celebration, locking his fingers together and pulling his hands over his face, an almost weekly occurrence.
After his goal against Sporting, Gabriel mimicked Gyokeres’ celebration with former Gunners star Freddie Ljungberg branding the move ‘disrespectful.’
Gyokeres himself made light of the situation, urging Gabriel ‘to steal it if he can’t create his own celebration’.
But former Manchester City star Richards has warned incidents such as those can come back to gaunt players.
Richards told the Rest is Football podcast: ‘I don’t quite agree with his Gyokeres celebration, we don’t need to go there. Be the bigger person.’
Having absolutely none of it, Alan Shearer interjected: ‘Oh what a load of s**t! If he wants to do it, let him do it!’
Richards continued: ‘I’m all for fun but these moments here always come back to bite you. I love his confidence and love the fact he can bring it.
‘But why is a defender even thinking about doing a Gyokeres celebration? I know he’s good at set pieces but come on.’
Arsenal are back in Premier League action away to West Ham United on Saturday evening.
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Gabriel appeared to be struggling with a knock in the latter stages of Tuesday’s win in Lisbon with Mikel Arteta explaining in his pre-match press conference on Friday the defender did not train with the squad on Thursday.
‘We will wait and see,’ Arteta said when asked about Gabriel’s fitness.
Pressed on further injury updates, he added: ‘Not a lot because we have another training session. We have to see how the boys are today.
‘A few of them weren’t able to train yesterday but hopefully they will be able to today.’