Injury to key man cost us the game!!
Another game, another injury for the Gunners in what has been a relentless past few weeks for Arsenal on the injury front. In our two all draw with Liverpool this past weekend we suffered another injury blow in our defensive department to one of our standout performances this season.
This player being none other Gabriel Magalhães who got substituted in the 54th minute after colliding with Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez earlier in the half. The big Brazilian tried to soldier on after initial treatment, but he eventually got forced off with a knee injury. We are yet to know the severity of the injury. My hopes are on it being good news by the time this article is posted, looking back to the past however I think that this injury played a major role in our dropped points against Liverpool.
This is because their second of the game wouldn’t have happened if Gabriel was on the pitch. Kiwior, who came on to replace the Brazillian had a fairly decent and error free game, until he got caught out of position in the build up to Salah’s goal. He misjudged the flight of TAA pass into Darwin Nunez quite naively which left him out of position, and thereby an easy passage to goal for the Reds in which they duly obliged. This cost us the game due to it being their last goal in the match and who knows, maybe if he had stayed on things could have been much different.
However, considering we weren’t with our preferred centre-back pairing for the first time since May 2023 in the final 35 minutes then we should view a draw as a point gained instead of two dropped, this is even more so if you take into account we played the final 20 or so minutes with a back four of Lewis-Skelly, Jakub Kiwior, Ben White and a makeshift Thomas Partey at right-back.
We’ll surely be hoping for good news on the injury front for Jurrien Timber and Gabriel but till then, would Gabriel have made a difference to Salah’s goal?
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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“Would Gabriel have made a difference to Salah’s goal?”. Possibly, but there’s no way of knowing for sure.
One thing is certain though – if Saliba hadn’t got a silly (stupid?) red card in the previous game he would have been on the pitch with Gabriel (for part of the game anyway). Who knows what the outcome would have been then.
It shows the cost of these red cards. You could argue that Saliba’s red cost Arsenal a total of up to five points over two games. These things matter – let’s hope that Arteta has made his point to the players and that we won’t see more.
I thought Ben White did very well as the direct replacement for Saliba, with whom he could be paired if Gabriel is badly injured.
Ben White was excellent playing along side Gabriel Magahlase, before Saliba came and make that position his.
That Hollywood pass to Saka is one of the key traits why the gaffer hand pick the Englishman and payed £50 mill for his service.
He was ask to play wide and admirable did so without any complaints, something another young Englishman never take well , Ainsley Myles