Arsenal’s Gabriel Paulista picked up an injury in Sunday’s friendly win over Manchester City, but has revealed that he now hopes to return sooner than previously expected.
Per Mertesacker has already been ruled out with injury for five months, while Laurent Koscielny is yet to return from his holiday due to an extended run in the European Championships this summer, and the Brazilian defender had looked like he was going to be ruled out for the weekend’s Premier League opener also.
The defender had been giving Gunners fans a head-ache with the prospect of starting the season with inexperienced duo Rob Holding and Calum Chambers at centre-back against Liverpool this weekend, but Gabriel may well be able to feature, but an official return date is yet to be announced.
He doesn’t claim that he will be ready to return as early as the weekend, but he says he is feeling good, and we can only hope that he can take the pressure off of the younger pair.
Liverpool have looked sharp so far in pre-season, as has our beloved club, and should Gabriel not feature, there still remains hope that we could land a new defender before the weekend.
Reports are claiming we are set to launch a £30 Million bid to bring in Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia, in hope of having him in line to start this weekend, but with little time to build an understanding with his fellow defenders, it could also pose a risky move.
Would you rather see a new signing rushed into the side or rely on the young English duo? Or should we simply play Gibbs in the left-back role and field Nacho Monreal in the centre as we did last term?
Gooner P
so there goes our CB target… cuase when gabriel returns he will be like a new signing….. and wenger will piss his pants if valencia demands 30 mil for a defender
It will all depend on when will we finalize the signing if mustafi is in good form and in good strength it will show on the training field but in all honesty the young defenders didn’t do that bad at the warm ups come to think of it gabrial was the weakest point and there could be a quick solution by recalling varmalin to the side but this is the way I would resolve the urgency of the matter personally
no need to hold your breath for nothing guys.
Wengers calculations are that.
holding can hold on to wait for koscienly
Chambers can then partner with koscienly
Waiting for gabriel.
Walcott and akpom will waot for giroud and later o welbeck will return like a new signing.
If at all we beat liverpool this weekend and the performances are good wenger will not wanna hear about the transfer market again.
Liverpool surely would but wenger will not
Whether Gabriel is out short or long term, I think we should still get another experience defender to cover for Mert, who is a long term absentee (until the new year I believe). For me only Kos and Mert are proven CB in the team now. Mert has his issues, but our backline always seems decent no matter who he partnered be it Kos, Gab, Chambers, Monreal or Debuchy becoz he is an excellent organizer. Gab is ok when he partnered Mert but is like a headless chicken when he partnered Kos. Of course we can hope one of Gab, Chambers, Holding or Bierlik to emerge and establish himself strongly this season like Bellerin did two seasons ago. But if this experiment does not work out, and the window is closed, what then…Do we want to be forced to go half a season with a weakened back line?
What if Kos got injured for a month along the way? Do we want to depend on Monreal-Gab, Gab-Chambers, Holding- Chambers partnership for half a season just becoz we have no other choice? I am not saying that the young boys did not have talents to succeed but I would rather have them win their place on merit through convincing performance and not by default.
Ideally I would like to see highly rated Cb such as Koulibaly, Manolas etc..etc at AFC this season to replace Mert as starter. But if for some reason we cannot or do not want to get them, an experience proven defender would do. Many names has been bandit about Ashley Williams, Jonny Evans and for me they would do., worst come to worst. But for my money I would take a closer look at Jose Fonte. I have observed him for the last few years and I have always been impressed at how Southampton always managed to put a strong backline no matter who he partnered, be it Lovren, Alderweireld, Van Dijk, Yoshida, Gardos. But I was not so sure he can cut it at higher levels until I saw him at Euro 2016. He replaced R.Carvalho after Portugal 3-3 draw against Hungary in the last group game and walla, they just let in 1 more goal the rest of the tournament against the likes of Croatia, Poland, Wales and France.So for me if we want a stop gap proven quality defender this season, I would go for him if we can steal him from Southampton. Both Ashley and him in terms of organizing the backline is equally good but for me he just edged Ashley a bit individually in terms of height and aerial strength.
David Ornstein Verified account
@bbcsport_david
”Arsenal CB Gabriel out 6/8wks – ankle sprain. Not quite as bad as he 1st feared but #AFC stepping up pursuit of Valencia’s Shkodran Mustafi”
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If this is true, we should defnitely know that the injury span could be longer
It was a sprained ankle, everyone at the club is too embarrassed to talk to much about it, especially in the way he was given so much attention with the treatment on the
Pitch, with straps, gas and air then stretchered off! ?
Oh and plenty of tears! To the point where he couldn’t even talk and thats what scared the Arsenal Physio’s into thinking that there was something broken and I’m not talking about Gabriel’s English. ?And then you have the likes of Cazorla, who played on for the entire 2nd half on one leg with a real serious knee injury. ?
Gabriel will probably be sold in the January transfer window,
What a wuss! ?.
Call me cynical, but i don’t believe anything coming out of arsenal.
lets be honest, when has one of our injured players ever come back on time, or not had a relapse 1 match into their return.. so please excuse me for not believing this.
also, with the regular lies from wenger and gadzidis on our transfer aspirations, how do we know this is not a smokescreen from gabriel (as the clubs request), so us fans think we don’t need a new defender, and then when the transfer window is closed, amazingly gabriels injury is worse than originally thought…
also, everton sell stones this morning, and this afternoon are setting up a medical for his replacement, this is how you conduct transfer business… not our strategy, which I’m not actually sure what it is any more !!
The strategic is to make do with that hole in your shoe!
Just keep changing the piece of cardboard inside, everyday! ? Oh wait … make that once aweek! ?
if it were arsenal we would probably take 5yrs to find a replacement,
Get well soon Gabriel and when you do step up your game because you have the X factor and can be a world class player.Chambers needed but now since we are short what can we do?I’m scared of him playing this Sunday and though he’s got more experience than Bielik I’d not complain if he starts over him because he’s not been impressive.I was also disappointed with Hayden leaving because bar injury he’s got more potential than Chambers and that’s a shame.Well we need to sign a good CB and a striker to finish off these chances not necessarily world class.
how some people keep saying lets give wenger benefit of the doubt, weve been saying this same crap for 10 yrs plus now, dis man aint gona change, he shuld just go
Wishing Gabriel quick recovery. Really felt for him when he was crying on that pitch.
In other news:
I’m happy with the way City are going about their business; good for my own personal business.?
Gabriel would be out for 6—-8wks …..with and additional 4wks for rehab (wenger Logic)
so dn’t come around telling me that’s a relief!