Benteke had the beating of Gabriel (Picture: Sky Sports)

Jamie Carragher has slammed Gabriel Paulista’s defending for Crystal Palace’s opener at Selhurst Park and believes it’s a damning summary of Arsenal’s defensive efforts throughout the past 10 years.

The Brazilian centre-back lost the ball in the air to Palace forward Christian Benteke in the build-up to Andros Townsend’s opener, which was neatly assisted by Wilfired Zaha.

But while he was impressed by Palace’s first half performance, Liverpool legend Carragher took aim at Gabriel and Shkodran Mustafi for their work in a disappointing opening 45 minutes.

Carragher told Sky Sports at half-time: ‘The two centre-backs have been absolutely bullied by Benteke.

Townsend put Palace in front (Picture: Getty)

‘Show some leadership, get someone in front of you. It’s not being weak, get someone who’s better in the air.

‘Look at Gabriel’s eyes on Benteke. Benteke only has eyes for the ball. Gabriel is absolutely terrified.

‘He’s absolutely terrified. Now there could be a suggestion of a foul – no one complained – but you want your centre-back to be smashing into a centre-forward.

‘And that sums up Arsenal’s centre-backs today and probably for the last 10 years, really.

‘We spoke about the West Brom game and how poor that was, this first half has been equally as bad.’

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