Arsenal have received encouraging news on Riccardo Calafiori\u2019s fitness ahead of a congested run of fixtures that includes the north London derby. Calafiori was sent home to continue his recovery in north London after Italy\u2019s automatic qualification became unlikely. With automatic qualification now nigh on impossible for Italy, who will finish second behind Norway and move into the playoffs, the Arsenal left back was sent home to continue his recovery in north London.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old left back has become a key figure in Arsenal\u2019s defensive setup this season, establishing himself ahead of Myles Lewis-Skelly to claim the starting left back role. With him in the team, the Gunners have conceded just five times this term. Concern rose when Calafiori withdrew from international duty, but the club expect him back in training shortly. According to Fabrizio Romano, Arsenal expect Calafiori to be \u201cavailable from next week,\u201d ensuring he will almost certainly feature in some capacity against Spurs.<\/p>\n
That would be a timely boost. Arsenal face Tottenham Hotspur in the derby on Nov. 23, then host Bayern Munich in the Champions League and travel to Chelsea in the Premier League during the following week. Calafiori\u2019s likely return would provide continuity on the left as the schedule intensifies.<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s defensive picture is not entirely positive. Centre back Gabriel sustained a groin injury during Brazil\u2019s 2\u20130 win over Senegal on Saturday and was withdrawn just after the hour mark while playing at the Emirates Stadium. The Brazil medical team has supplied an official diagnosis to Arsenal.<\/p>\n
\u201cArsenal player Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es was re-evaluated this Sunday (16) and underwent imaging tests that revealed a muscle injury in his right thigh,\u201d a statement on Sunday read. \u201cTherefore, the player will not be travelling with the team to the match against Tunez in Lille. No other player will be called up to replace him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arsenal must now balance optimism over Calafiori with careful management of Gabriel\u2019s recovery as they approach one of the busiest stretches of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Calafiori expected back for north London derby; Gabriel ruled out with a right thigh muscle injury..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[1033,1047,1253],"class_list":["post-4506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-brazilian-football","tag-champions-league","tag-riccardo-calafiori"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4506","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=4506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}