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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Tom Victor

Arsenal made to sweat as Gabriel spotted limping down players' tunnel after PSV loss

Arsenal face a nervous wait after centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes was seen limping down the tunnel after Thursday's Europa League loss in Eindhoven.

The Brazilian defender hasn't missed a minute for the Gunners in the Premier League this term, but was only a substitute as Mikel Arteta's team faced PSV Eindhoven in the Europa League. Gabriel came on for the final 16 minutes of the 2-0 defeat, but appeared in pain as the players headed down the tunnel at full-time.

Arsenal are back in action on Sunday, hosting Nottingham Forest at the Emirates Stadium. Manager Arteta didn't address Gabriel's situation in his post-match press conference in the Netherlands, but we won't have long to wait before finding out the extent of any injury.

According to The Telegraph, Gabriel appeared to be "grimacing in pain" as he headed down the tunnel. The former Lille man had come on for the final stages, and had a shot blocked not long before the final whistle.

Before Thursday's game, Gabriel had only missed one match this season - the 1-0 win away to Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League, for which he was an unused substitute. It has been more than a year since he sat out a Premier League game, with Arsenal losing 5-0 at Manchester City on that occasion.

If Gabriel is unavailable on Sunday, Arteta will have options. Rob Holding started with WIlliam Saliba at the Philips-Stadion, and the pair could continue that partnership in north London, while there is also the option of starting Ben White in central defence with Takehiro Tomiyasu at right-back.

How big a miss would Gabriel be? Have your say in the comments section

Gabriel hasn't missed a league game in more than a year (Getty Images)

Former Arsenal star wasn't impressed by a number of members of Arsenal's back-line on Thursday. PSV had two goals disallowed in the first half, but Joey Veerman and Luuk de Jong struck after the break to hand Ruud van Nistelrooy's side victory.

"Why is [Kieran] Tierney picking up De Jong?" Keown asked in relation to the second goal "I'm shouting at the TV - Ramsdale goes for a big haymaker he should be going with a straight arm. I'm not sure why Tierney is going against him [De Jong]. Holding should've helped him out."

"I don't want this to derail his team - five people missing and five subs on. Strength in depth not quite there but as long as they can learn from that, they'll use this as fuel going into the Forest game."

Despite the defeat, Arsenal are still assured of a place in the knockout stages of the Europa League after winning their first four group games. If they can match PSV's result in the final round of group games then they will avoid a play-off round and progress directly to the last 16.

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