Morning from a really chilly Dublin. Winter has arrived. Booooo!
Let’s begin with the dangerous information, and one thing I can’t say is a shock. It was reported by James and David Ornstein in The Athletic yesterday (€) that Gabriel is ready to overlook a major chunk of time with the damage he sustained enjoying for Brazil. There’s no particular timeframe, nevertheless it might be as much as two months, which is, in fact, an actual blow.
It’ll spark loads of debate. Initially – who replaces him within the group, and that’s one thing we are able to contact on one other day. The silver lining, if you happen to can name it that, is that we do have good choices, however clearly lacking one in all your finest gamers, and an actual presence on the pitch is all the time going to break you to some extent. Gabriel has cultivated a form of aura, defensively and offensively, which I don’t suppose any of the others have, for comprehensible causes. So past deciding on somebody to play in that place, we miss these intangibles that are very arduous to quantify but additionally to exchange.
Then the inquest into the way it occurred will happen, and as followers we’ll take a look at each doable factor. I’ve seen it stated Gabriel was carrying one thing, and he ought to have advised Brazil he wouldn’t play, however we don’t know that for certain. He has performed rather a lot this season, off the again of an enormous damage and surgical procedure final season too, so was there scope for Mikel Arteta to play another person in a single or two of the video games he featured in? Would that even have made a distinction? We don’t know.
It was typical of our season that Viktor Gyokeres, who had additionally performed rather a lot, picked up his hamstring pressure having had a midweek relaxation. There’s nothing to undoubtedly say that fewer minutes for Gabriel would have prevented this. Then there’s the questioning of him enjoying in what’s perceived as a ‘meaningless’ sport, and look, I get the frustration when somebody will get injured in a pleasant, however clearly this sport was not meaningless to Gabriel. Representing his nation and enjoying at his house stadium, it was all the time going to imply one thing a bit extra due to that.
Keep in mind, within the final Interlull, Brazil travelled to South Korea and Japan, 10,000+ air-miles, greater than 24 hours within the air mixed, and he got here again wonderful. This time he simply needed to go down the street and he picked up an damage. So, who can actually say precisely why this occurred and who’s accountable? It’s not one factor, it’s a mix of so many differing components, however maybe the underlying one as individuals strike out in all instructions is the quantity of soccer trendy gamers on the prime of the sport need to play.
You may blame Brazil, Carlo Ancelotti, Gabriel himself, Mikel Arteta, our coaching pitches, the pitch on the Emirates, whoever you need, however I feel the obvious factor is simply how arduous these gamers need to work for membership and nation lately. The schedule is relentless, the sport is performed at such excessive depth these days too, and the truth is that there shall be casualties alongside the best way. We both tackle the core situation of the schedule, or we study to stay with gamers getting injured. It strikes me that having constructed this massive squad, these inside the sport settle for that there’ll by no means be much less soccer as a result of meaning much less cash, so the reply is, when somebody like Gabriel will get injured, you’ve got Riccardo Calafiori, Piero Hincapie or Cristhian Mosquera to fill that hole.
And though we really feel each damage situation so acutely due to our expertise (current or in any other case), it’s not not simply Arsenal struggling. It is a rising situation throughout the Premier League, and I can’t escape the sensation that it’s going to proceed to be an issue all through this season. I don’t have the gumption or inclination to look into it in depth, however I’d wager for the reason that lockdown and the best way making an attempt to ‘catch up’ has impacted the schedules, there’s been a pointy rise within the common frequency and seriousness of accidents within the skilled sport.
The Gabriel information was exacerbated by an replace from Germany’s supervisor about Kai Havertz who has, in line with him, had a bit of set-back in his restoration from the knee damage/surgical procedure. He says usually he’s doing nicely, and is anticipated again in December, however any hopes he is likely to be accessible for this weekend appeared to have been dashed. It stays to be seen who is likely to be again for the North London derby, so we’ll have to attend and see no matter scant data we get from Mikel Arteta when he meets the press on Friday.
For now, let’s want Gabriel a speedy restoration. He’s as a lot a fighter in terms of this type of stuff as he’s on the pitch, so he’ll be determined to get again as quickly as doable, however the essential factor is to get again 100%. Good luck.
—
In the meantime, after Eire’s unbelievable late win over Hungary to succeed in the World Cup playoffs, Scotland went one higher final evening by beating Denmark in damage time to succeed in the event correct. And the aim that despatched them by? Scored by none apart from former Gunner Kieran Tierney.
Pleased Kieran Tierney, Pleased me. Pleased Scotland ! 🥹❤️
— Prashant 🌊 (@prasshant.bsky.social) 2025-11-18T21:53:17.653Z
The BBC Scotland commentary on that’s nice, paying homage to how the RTE lads went spare when Troy Parrott scored that winner. Truthfully, what a second for him (and Scotland clearly!), however you’d need to have a coronary heart of stone to not love that for KT himself. After all of the damage issues he’s had, and I feel in all probability continues to play by, to supply one thing like that assist ship his nation by is outstanding. He completely deserves to have the solar shine on him in that manner after so many weeks and months within the doldrums, coping with the ache and the rehab and the setbacks and all the remainder.
There shall be many Arsenal followers pissed off by what has occurred on this break, however as I wrote the opposite day, there’s one thing particular about moments like these in video games that basically imply one thing. Eire confirmed it, Scotland confirmed it, and for a participant that continues to be an enormous favorite with so many Gooners, it was an Interlull to recollect.
Proper, I’m gonna go away it there for now. Keep heat, again with extra tomorrow.
