Mikel Arteta said that Gabriel Magalhaes was taken off against West Ham United on Saturday night because the knee problem he had against Sporting Lisbon last Tuesday happened again.

When playing away from home, the Gunners beat the Hammers 5-2. After just 36 minutes, the guests took a 4-0 lead.

In the 10th minute, Gabriel scored the game’s first goal from a corner kick. The Brazilian became the first defender in the last three Premier League seasons to score 10 goals.

Set pieces are a big part of Arsenal’s game plan, and the Brazilian has been very important to them over the last two seasons.

The center-back was taken off at halftime because of an injury, and Arteta told reporters that it was related to the injury he got against Sporting. “It was related to the previous injury that he had in Lisbon, and obviously he did great to be a part of that, but with that result and the niggle that he’s feeling, we decided to take him off,” he said.

So far, the Premier League season has been tough.

Fans of the Gunners are worried about Gabriel’s injury, which is a feeling that they’ve had a lot of lately since the team seemed to have a lot of injuries last season.

Martín Odegaard was just recently put back into the starting group. Players like Mikel Merino and Ben White have also missed games this season.

Before the game against West Ham, it was also announced that Thomas Partey and Mikel Merino would not be able to play because they were injured.

Arteta wanted to stress how important his team was after Arsenal’s win over West Ham. He said, “We had a problem with Gabriel, we have a problem with Ricky [Riccardo Calafiori], and yesterday we lost Thomas Partey, Mikkel Merino, and Myles Lewis-Skelly, which was very bad news.”

“I’m really glad that [Jakub Kiwior] has to come in because he plays great.” [Oleksandr Zinchenko] the same thing, Jorginho. I also thought he was great today. At that level, we’ll need everyone to be at their best every three days, so it’s a good sign that the team can do that.

A clear winner?

Even though it’s hard to make a big win when you’re behind by six or nine points in the title race, Arsenal were able to show the rest of the Premier League how good they are.

There is a reason why Odegaard’s return has happened at the same time as Bukayo Saka’s amazing form. The Gunners have one of the best right wings in football.

As things stand, Arsenal would probably have to be almost perfect from now until the end of the season if they want to win the Premier League. If they played each game like they did in 2023–24, they would only get about 82 points.

Leicester City won the title with 81 points in 2015-16, which was the last time a team won the title with less than 83 points.

Arteta and Arsenal fans will be hoping that Gabriel can start right away for what will be a busy winter as they try to take advantage of any points Liverpool lose.