Gabriel Magalhaes is expected to be sidelined for at least a month after suffering an injury while on international duty with Brazil
Former Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna has dismissed concerns that Gabriel Magalhaes' injury will derail the club's Premier League title hopes this season. Gabriel was forced off in the 64th minute during Brazil's 2-0 victory over Senegal at the Emirates Stadium last Saturday.
The 27-year-old seemed to have sustained a muscle injury while sprinting. There are now reports suggesting that Gabriel could be sidelined for at least a month, missing some key fixtures in both the Premier League and Champions League.
If Gabriel is out for four weeks, he would miss seven matches across all competitions, including the North London Derby this weekend against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League and next Wednesday's high-profile clash against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
With Gabriel likely to be out of action for the foreseeable future, Piero Hincapie could step into the line-up alongside William Saliba - although Cristian Mosquera could fill in at left centre-back or Riccardo Calafiori might be ready to shift into the middle with Myles Lewis-Skelly coming in on the left side of defence.
However, Sagna remains confident that Gabriel's absence won't affect Arsenal's Premier League title ambitions. He pointed out that the Gunners now have a much stronger squad depth compared to when Saliba was ruled out for several matches two years ago - a spell that effectively ended their 2022/23 title challenge.
"Gabriel's injury won't stop Arsenal from challenging for the Premier League title. They have a much deeper squad now, compared to two or three years ago," Sagna said in an interview with Oddspedia.
"It's unfortunate for any player to get injured, but Mikel Arteta now has the players at his disposal to fill Gabriel's position in the meantime. They will notice him not being part of their back-line, but I don't believe it will have too much of an impact.
"Arsenal learned from a similar situation in the past with William Saliba. When he got injured in 2023, Saliba missed nearly half the season and they suffered because of it.
"But things have changed since then - Ben White and Riccardo Calafiori are more than capable of filling Gabriel's position while he's out; they're both top-quality players and are proof of the improvements to the squad in recent years."
Arsenal, who sit four points clear of second-placed Manchester City at the Premier League summit, take on Tottenham in the north London derby on Sunday afternoon.
Looking ahead to the Gunners' showdown with Spurs, Sagna added: "I've been really impressed with Arsenal so far this season. They seem to have the right mentality to sustain a Premier League title challenge and have already performed well in big games.
"At home, they will have too much quality against Tottenham, even with Gabriel's absence. I can see them winning comfortably, 2-0."
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