“He’s the only who’s going to be out for weeks but the other TWO are okay and ready to face Man United”: Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta gives updates on Saka, Odegaard and Gabriel injury scare against West Ham

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Gabriel Magalhaes was substituted off against West Ham United on Saturday evening as a result of a reoccurrence of the injury issue he suffered against Sporting Lisbon last Tuesday, Mikel Arteta has said.

The Gunners emerged as 5-2 victors away from home against the Hammers, with the visitors racing into a 4-0 lead after just 36 minutes.

Gabriel grabbed the first goal of the game after just 10 minutes from a corner, and the Brazilian became the first defender to score 10 times in the last three Premier League seasons.

The Brazilian has proved vital for Arsenal in the last two campaigns, with set pieces an important part of the Gunners’ gameplan.

However, the centre-back was taken off at half time due to injury, and Arteta said that the issue was related to the one he picked up against Sporting, telling reporters: “It was related to the previous injury that he had in Lisbon and obviously he did great to be part of that but with that result and with the niggle that he’s feeling, we decided to take him off.

The injury concerns regarding Gabriel are an all too familiar feeling for Gunners fans, with the team’s injury fortunes of last season seemingly coming to an abrupt end this campaign.

Arteta was also asked about star man Saka as well as Riccardo Calafiori, who were both taken off in the second half. “He’s fine. He’s fine. No problem,” the Arsenal boss said of Saka, who scored one goal and registered three assists. “Ricci, he’s been with little niggles in the last few weeks.

“Obviously he had a very serious knee injury and he’s doing really well, but we have to manage his minutes and today we have to do the same

On the overall performance, Arteta hailed: “It was a spectacular 30 minutes. Straight away, how much the team wanted it, the purpose, the determination, the quality that we deliver, to score three great goals in different ways and then score the fourth one in a great way as well.”

“But then after that, we had a period where the individual quality of them play a big part. 4-2, and then it’s game on, you can sense the energy change and then what’s next. I think it’s great to score the fifth one because that calmed everything down. For the second half, we could play a very different game, that it was much more suited to us.”

He was also greatly pleased with the substitutes who replaced Gabriel, Saka and Calafiori. “Very important, we had an issue with Gabi, we have an issue with Ricky as well, yesterday we lost Thomas [Partey] and Mikel [Merino] and Myles [Lewis-Skelly] which was very bad news but what I’m really happy about is Jakub has to come in, he does really well,” Artet added.

“Alex [Zinchenko] the same, Jorginho, I thought he was exceptional today as well. That’s the level, every three days we’re going to need everybody at their best and it’s a good sign that the team can do that.”