Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has confirmed centre-back Gabriel will be sidelined for “weeks” after picking up an injury playing for Brazil.
The 27-year-old was forced off in Brazil’s win over Senegal during the international break and Arteta has described Gabriel’s absence as a “blow”, with the defender set to miss Sunday’s North London derby against Tottenham – live on Sky Sports.
The clash with Spurs is the first of three crunch games for Arsenal, who host German champions Bayern Munich on Wednesday in the Champions League before travelling to Chelsea on November 30 – live on Sky Sports.
Sunday 23rd November 4:00pm
Kick off 4:30pm
Arteta said: “Gabi unfortunately picked up an injury with the national team. He will be out for weeks.
“We need to have another scan next Wednesday. We will have the timeline much more clearly than we have at the moment.”
Gabirel has been an ever-present this season in an Arsenal side who have conceded just five Premier League goals.
Piero Hincapie and Cristhian Mosquera are both in contention to deputise for the Brazilian against Spurs.
“It’s clearly a blow,” Arteta added. “It’s our leader in our backline.
“To miss him is never a positive thing. The good thing is we have some very good options. They need to stand up now.”
Viktor Gyokores, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke and captain Martin Odegaard have all been on the injured list for Arsenal in recent weeks, but Arteta hopes to have positive news about at least a couple of them ahead of Sunday.
“We put a lot of energy during the international break with all the medical staff to try to bring them as quickly as possible,” added the Spaniard.
“So tomorrow we have another training session, to see how some of them are feeling, whether it’s a bit too close to bring him in this game or we feel that they can have a contribution in the game. Tomorrow we’ll have more clarity.”
On how confident he is having some injured players retrurn, he added: “I am [more optimistic than at Sunderland that they will be back]. Now is the final stage. There is contact around them and pushed into the things they haven’t done.
“I think they’re going to be with us soon. But I don’t know if Sunday is too soon.”
Who should replace Gabriel at centre-back?
Sky Sports’ Sam Blitz:
It’s a big week for Arsenal and the injury to Gabriel is threatening to derail it.
Tottenham at home – the biggest game in the Arsenal fixture calendar. Bayern Munich at home – where they welcome arguably the best striker in the world in Harry Kane. And then Chelsea away – who have “the best attack in the league by far” according to Arteta earlier this year. All in the space of seven days.
With the defender now set to be out for weeks, Arteta will have to find a way around not having one of the best defenders in the league for such a crucial period.
Arsenal have a much better Premier League record with Gabriel starting
One option to replace him is Piero Hincapie, who was signed on Deadline Day to act as cover for Gabriel in the left centre-back role.
However, he is yet to start a Premier League game for the club – and four out of his five Arsenal appearances have come at left-back. His only start came in the Carabao Cup win over Brighton, a game which saw Arsenal concede six shots on target – which is very unlike them.
Another option is Cristhian Mosquera, who could line up alongside William Saliba. However, the 21-year-old has not started in the Premier League since the win over Newcastle, which saw him make a mistake for the Magpies’ opener and was hooked off at half-time.
The only game in which he has started alongside Saliba came at League One side Port Vale. Spurs at home on Sunday is a very different proposition.
Another option is to play Riccardo Calafiori at centre-back, and bring in a left-back option – either Hincapie or Myles Lewis-Skelly. But Arteta has spoken in the past about not wanting to change two positions when only one player is injured.
Kolo Muani injury boost for Tottenham ahead of north London derby
Meanwhile, Tottenham boss Thomas Frank has been given a major boost ahead of Sunday’s trip to Arsenal with forward Randal Kolo Muani available.
The Paris St-Germain loanee suffered damage to his jaw in Spurs’ 2-2 draw with Manchester United on November 8 and subsequently missed international duty with France.
He joined a lengthy injury list for Tottenham, but Frank provided positive updates on a number of players and Kolo Muani can unexpectedly play after he was fitted with a protective mask in order to train this week.
“Pape [Sarr] trained today, ready and available. Lucas [Bergvall] trained today and is available. Kolo Muani, yes trained today, available – of course he has a mask he needs to play with,” Frank revealed.
Defenders Ben Davies and Kota Takai also returned to training this week and centre-back Radu Dragusin took part in a behind-closed-doors friendly earlier this month to step up his recovery after he sustained anterior cruciate ligament damage in January.
Archie Gray is another back and Mohammed Kudus, who missed international duty with Ghana, has also returned to training in a further boost for Frank.
James Maddison, Yves Bissouma and Dejan Kulusevski remain sidelined along with Dominic Solanke, who has not featured since August 23 and had minor surgery on his ankle last month.
Frank added: “Dom is not ready yet. We are very aware that when we put him out there, we want to be as sure as we can that there will be no setback going forward. I am comfortable he will soon be ready.”
