Arsenal star Gabriel fights masked attacker wielding baseball bat at London home

Tap above to watch video report by Martin Stew

Arsenal star Gabriel fought off a baseball bat-wielding thug who attempted to steal his car. Gabriel Magalhaes, known as Gabriel, had just returned to his home in Barnet, north London, when he was approached by three men as he got out of his car on August 20.

One of the men, Abdi Muse, 26, was armed with a baseball bat. The men ordered Gabriel to give them his car keys, which he did.

But footage of the incident shows an ensuing struggle between Gabriel and the men as he fended them off. They fled with the keys but left the car behind in the garage.

Muse was later arrested, and he was jailed at Harrow Crown Court in November for five years after admitting robbery and possession of an offensive weapon, the Metropolitan Police said. Reacting to the incident, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said you have to "give credit" to Gabriel.

"It's not a nice thing to go through, when you have family involved and they're trying to access your house," he said.

"Gabby showed a lot of character, you see the reaction that he had straight away. Credit to the boy. After that he was fine.

"He was shocked and obviously he wanted to change a few things in his life to make sure that didn't happen again."

Arteta added that Arsenal supported Gabriel in the wake of the robbery.

"The club gave him all the support that was needed to try and help him forget about the situation, learn about it and move on", he said.

Arsenal bought Gabriel from Lille for £27 million last year. At the time of the robbery he had been side-lined with a knee injury.

However, he has since made 10 appearances for the Premiership side.

It was not the first time that an Arsenal star has had to face off against robbers.

Two armed men attempted to rob expensive watches from defender Sead Kolasinac, 28, and midfielder Mesut Ozil, 33, in Hampstead, north-west London, in 2019.

However, Kolasinac fought back and was able to jump into a car driven by Ozil.

Ozil then drove them from the ambush as the would-be robbers pursued them on a moped.

The pair were able to escape, but only after their vehicle sustained damage from stones thrown by their pursuers.