Arsenal suffer Gabriel Magalhaes injury blow as Mikel Arteta reveals issue

Gabriel Magalhaes was forced off late with injury in Arsenal's dominant 5-1 Champions League win over Sporting CP on Tuesday night, Mikel Arteta has confirmed. The Brazilian was replaced by Jakub Kiwior with just over five minutes left in Portugal.

Speaking after the match, Arteta explained the decision to withdraw Gabriel, who scored Arsenal's third goal of the night. "We had to make the change because he was feeling some discomfort," the head coach explained. "I was about to make the change for Raz [Raheem Sterling], poor thing, I couldn’t make the sub. We had to get him out."

It was the one blow at the end of a brilliant night for the Gunners. They enjoyed their biggest Champions League win for over 20 years, putting a Sporting side without Ruben Amorim to the sword from the very first minute.

Gabriel Martinelli opened the scoring before Kai Havertz doubled the lead soon after. Gabriel's thumping header capped off a fine first half in Lisbon.

The hosts did hit back after the break and put Arsenal under serious pressure but found their efforts to reduce the defecit denied by David Raya and several excellent saves from long-range shots. Bukayo Saka then put the game out of reach for good after converting a penalty won by Martin Odegaard.

Leandro Trossard added a fifth to round off a tremendous night in Europe. Some concern was felt when Gabriel went down and had to be helped up by the referee and William Saliba, though.

Arteta had been preparing to get Sterling onto the field but was made to reconsider after Gabriel was deemed unable to continue. He will hope to get back to fitness for a trip to West Ham on Saturday evening.

Arsenal visit the London Stadium aiming to make it back-to-back wins in the Premier League following their 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

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