Arsenal defender Gabriel fought off an attacker armed with a baseball bat who attempted to steal various items including a Mercedes parked inside the garage of his north London home.
Abderaham Muse was jailed for five years last month after attempting to steal the Brazilian’s £45,000 car, a mobile phone and a watch after tracking Gabriel and his friend Rodrigo Tavares as they returned from a night out in August.
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CCTV footage captured the incident, in which Gabriel can be seen taking off his watch and holding it up in the air before Muse lunges at him with a bat.
The Arsenal star strikes him and wrestles him to the ground. Muse and his two accomplices, both of whom have not been caught, then ran off.
Nobody was hurt in the incident and speaking at a news conference on Wednesday ahead of the club’s trip to Manchester United, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said: “Obviously it’s not a nice thing to go through when you have family involved and they are trying to access your own house.
“Gabi showed a lot of character. You see the reaction that he had straight away. Credit to the boy. And after that he was fine, obviously he was shocked, obviously there are a few things that he wanted to change in his life to try to prevent those things happening.
“The club gave him the support that was needed to try and forget about the situation, learn from it and move on.”
Muse, who was said in court to have convictions dating back to 2009, was sentenced for one count of robbery and one of possession of an offensive weapon. He also had a previous conviction and was subject to a 56-month sentence on licence for possession of heroin with intent to supply at the time of the attack.
At the time of sentencing last month, judge Anupama Thompson said of Muse: “While you didn’t specifically target the victim on account of him being a well-known footballer, there was a realisation this person was wealthy and worthy of robbing.
“You saw a nice car and a nice house and thought it was rich pickings. Fortunately, thanks to the brave actions of the people you targeted, no further damage was done.
“You have an appalling record for a man of 26. This was an horrific and frightening attack on a group of people who were simply coming home from a night out.”