Arsenal face fresh uncertainty at the back after Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es and Riccardo Calafiori left international duty injured. Calafiori\u2019s issue, representing Italy, is not expected to be major, Fabrizio Romano reports. Gabriel, who started for Brazil in the friendly against Senegal at the Emirates Stadium, went down in the second half clutching his right groin, signalled to the bench and was replaced by Wesley after receiving treatment.<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s defensive record this season has been exceptional: Arsenal have conceded just five goals in all competitions and recorded a run of eight consecutive clean sheets. They remain four points clear at the top of the Premier League through 11 games and sit second in their Champions League group after winning their opening four matches. Even so, new injuries are unwelcome ahead of a congested fixture run.<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta\u2019s side return from the international break with a demanding schedule. They host Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, Nov. 23 (4:30 p.m. GMT), then welcome Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday, Nov. 26 (8 p.m. GMT), before travelling to face Chelsea on Sunday, Nov. 30 (4:30 p.m. GMT). Brentford (H) and Aston Villa (A) follow in early December.<\/p>\n
Both Calafiori and Gabriel make offensive contributions as well as defensive ones. Calafiori frequently inverts from left back and appears in the final third in different areas, while Gabriel is a presence at attacking set pieces. Arsenal have internal options if either player misses time: Piero Hincapi\u00e9, Cristhian Mosquera and Myles Lewis-Skelly are available. Minutes could come at a timely moment for teenager Lewis-Skelly, who has been tasked with England manager Thomas Tuchel with finding more game time if he wants to be part of his 2026 FIFA World Cup plans. Mosquera has covered for William Saliba earlier in the campaign and Hincapi\u00e9 can operate as a left-sided centre back or left back.<\/p>\n
The squad is already without Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Noni Madueke, Viktor Gy\u00f6keres and Martin \u00d8degaard through injury, further limiting attacking options as Arsenal navigate the busy run of fixtures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori left international duty injured, leaving Arsenal’s defence stretched.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[1033,1047,199],"class_list":["post-4491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-brazilian-football","tag-champions-league","tag-cristhian-mosquera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}