Even on Arsenal's best day of the season there was a sting in the tail for Mikel Arteta. His side were well on their way to a tremendous and near-blemishless night in Lisbon before fears once again arose.
Taken off with just five minutes of normal time left, Gabriel Magalhaes' late injury threatens to leave a dark mark on what had been a scintilating night. Entering Tuesday's Champions League clash away at Sporting with it all to play for in the group phase, Arsenal ran out dominant 5-1 victors.
The Portuguese champions - now without Ruben Amorim at the helm - had beaten Manchester City 4-1 last time out. Arsenal did what their Premier League rivals couldn't, though, and put the game out of reach when they were on top, entering the break 3-0 up rather than with it all to play for as Pep Guardiola had seen.
Sporting's brief threat of getting back into the match lasted less a little over ten minutes as Bukayo Saka's inch-perfect penalty added to first half goals from Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, and the aforementioned Gabriel. His powerful header put the game to bed.
The Brazilian was unable to complete the match, however, and leaves Arteta with more unfortunate planning to do ahead of a trip to West Ham on Saturday. Here, football.london has the latest on Gabriel and his injury status.
What Arteta said
Speaking after the match, Arteta admitted that Gabriel's substitution - replaced by Jakub Kiwior - had not been tactical. "We had to make the change because he was feeling some discomfort," he said."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."
Gabriel was helped up from the grass by William Saliba after going down with a pain. He trudged off the field before coming back out at the end to celebrate in front of the Arsenal fans with the rest of his team.
Gabriel message
Posting online, Gabriel has continued to enjoy the win. "Amazing energy from the team and our supporters!! On to the next!! [love heart and fire emojis]" he wrote on Instagram alongside an image of celebrations from his goal.
Gabriel also added an image of himself with Declan Rice to his story. When the defender suffered an injury against Liverpool last month he soon showed the stages of his recovery online, which Arsenal fans will now be keeping an eye on.
Return plan
As is usual with these things, Arsenal will assess Gabriel at the Sobha Realty Training Complex. Luckily for Arteta there is a decent enough gap until the West Ham clash. More updates will be given officially on Friday, if nothing else, when Arteta faces the media.
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