Arteta confirms Gabriel injury blow for Arsenal

Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Gabriel is set for a spell on the sidelines.

The defender suffered an injury while playing for Brazil and is set to undergo further assessment to determine how long he will be out for.

“Gabriel unfortunately picked up an injury with the Brazilian national team and he’s going to be out for weeks,” Arteta said.

“It’s clearly a blow because it’s our leader in our backline and to me it’s obviously never a positive thing. The good thing, as you mentioned, is that we have very good options, and people have to stand up now and do their job.”

Riccardo Calafiori is also likely to miss the north London derby on Sunday having not trained ahead of the game.

On Calafiori, Arteta said: “He missed [the Italy matches], he wasn’t available, he’s been carrying a few things, and we have to bring him back, and he hasn’t trained yet, so tomorrow we have another training session and see how he is.”