There’s been some new Arsenal injury news.
Well, sort of.
According to Sam Dean, a journalist for The Telegraph, Gabriel Magalhaes was spotted ‘limping’ and ‘grimacing in pain’ [HITC Sport] after Arsenal’s Europa League defeat away to PSV on Thursday.
The Brazil international has formed an excellent centre-back partnership with William Saliba in the Premier League this season, with the top-of-the-table Gunners losing only one of their 11 domestic games this season.
And as a result, Mikel Arteta might be about to unleash a brand new centre-back pairing on Sunday.
Arsenal host Nottingham Forest this weekend and it’s very possible that Ben White will partner Saliba for the first time this season.
Saliba and Gabriel’s form has meant that White has spent most of the campaign as a right-back but, with Takehiro Tomiyasu fit again, the £50 million former Brighton & Hove Albion powerhouse might be moved centrally.
To be honest, White and Saliba are both excellent ball-playing defenders and if Gabriel was a success alongside the Frenchman then the England international should, in theory, adapt well too.
And fortunately for Arsenal, bottom-of-the-table Forest are unlikely to cause massive problems at the Emirates Stadium.
It would’ve been different had Arteta been forced to use this experimental partnership away to Manchester City, for example.
And who knows, Gabriel might be fine to continue alongside Saliba in defence against Steve Cooper’s side but, if Dean’s tweet is anything to go by, he won’t be and that’ll open the door for a White-Saliba axis for the first time.
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