Arsenal’s 2-1 victory over Fulham on Tuesday came at a cost, with Mikel Arteta suddenly facing a defensive injury crisis only a week out from the first leg of his side’s Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid.
While the welcome return of Bukayo Saka off the bench helped the Gunners to victory as he scored just minutes after his introduction with a close-range header, Arteta saw two of his key defenders limp off.
Centre-back Gabriel was first to go, pulling up sharply early in the first half before being replaced by Jakob Kiwior.
Jurrien Timber also needed treatment during the first half and while he was initially able to continue, he also failed to see out the 90 minutes, replaced with a quarter-of-an-hour to go.
Gabriel requires surgery on his injured hamstring and has been ruled out for the rest of the season, in what is a major blow for Arsenal.
The Gunners are already without Riccardo Calafiori, who suffered a knee injury on Italy duty last month and is expected to be out “for weeks”, while Ben White also missed the Fulham win with a knee issue.
It leaves Arteta with issues in his defensive ranks ahead of an encounter with Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham and Co.
Here are three ways the Arsenal back-four could shape up with Gabriel ruled out…
Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly
Arsenal have been haunted by hamstring issues this season, with Saka just back from a serious tear and Kai Havertz out for the season.
With Gabriel now out of the Madrid clash, Arteta will be hoping desperately that Timber’s injury is less significant.
If the Dutchman is fit, Arsenal could field the same back-four that played most of last night’s game, with Jakub Kiwior coming in to replace Gabriel, as he did off the bench.
Timber, White, Saliba, Lewis-Skelly
This is probably Arsenal’s best-case scenario.
White has been steadily feeling his way back to fitness after undergoing knee surgery on a lingering issue, making the match day squad in five straight league games prior to the international break and starting the de-facto dead rubber of a second leg in the Champions League against PSV.
However, the Englishman then missed the Fulham win entirely with a knee issue.
“He had a little niggle two days ago,” Arteta explained ahead of the game. “[On Monday] we tried, he wasn’t feeling right, so we decided not to put him in the squad today.”
If that problem is minor White could return to face Madrid, potentially to play at right-back, with Timber (if fit) or Kiwior (if not) at centre-back.
However, given White’s lack of football, sandwiching him between Timber and Saliba as the right centre-half may be a kinder reintroduction than exposing him one-on-one out wide, potentially against Vinicius.
Partey, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly
From the best-case scenario, to probably the worst (at least assuming no further injuries against Everton this weekend).
There is a world in which Arsenal go into the Madrid clash missing what reads like an outstanding back-four in Timber, White, Gabriel and Calafiori, not to mention long-term absentee Takehiro Tomiyasu.
In that instance, Arteta’s only spare defenders would be left-backs in Kieran Tierney and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Therefore the Arsenal boss would likely have to turn to Thomas Partey on the right, leaving Arsenal with the same back-four that finished the Fulham game.
Partey has played the position several times this season out of necessity but Arsenal’s record with him there is not good, in part because of the knock-on effect it has in midfield.
Were the Ghanaian pushed into defence it would mean a reshuffle further forward; either Jorginho would have to come in to start in midfield, or else Mikel Merino would drop back from his centre-forward berth, probably leaving Leandro Trossard to play up-front.
