Top 10 South Americans in Premier League history

#8 Gilberto Silva

In his prime, Gilberto Silva was genuinely world-class

Players from Brazil are rarely well-known for their prowess in the holding midfield position, but that certainly wasn’t true for Gilberto Silva, who spent six seasons at Arsenal and won the Premier League and two FA Cups, and also starred in the side that made it to the Champions League final in 2005/06.

Gilberto was of course signed by Arsenal following his role in Brazil’s 2002 World Cup triumph, in which he played every minute of every game.

While Claude Makelele is usually credited with the popularity of the holding midfielder in mid-2000’s Premier League teams, you could definitely offer up Gilberto as an alternative. When Arsenal won the Premier League in 2003/04 – the legendary ‘Invincibles’ team that went the whole season unbeaten – it was Gilberto who was arguably the most important component as he shielded the defence and allowed the attacking stars like Thierry Henry to flourish in front of him.

Not that Gilberto had a problem with scoring goals himself, though – thanks in part to a stint as Arsenal’s regular penalty taker, the Brazilian contributed 11 goals in all competitions in 2006/07 and surprisingly finished the season as the Gunners’ second top scorer.

By the time he moved to Panathinaikos in the summer of 2008 Gilberto had played well over 150 games in the Premier League alone for Arsenal, and at his peak he was clearly a world-class talent.