The 27-year-old was forced off in Brazil’s win over Senegal during the international break and Arteta has described Gabriel’s absence as a “blow”, with the defender set to miss Sunday’s North London derby against Tottenham – live on Sky Sports.
The clash with Spurs is the first of three crunch games for Arsenal, who host German champions Bayern Munich on Wednesday in the Champions League before travelling to Chelsea on November 30 – live on Sky Sports.
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Arteta said: “Gabi unfortunately picked up an injury with the national team. He will be out for weeks.
“We need to have another scan next Wednesday. We will have the timeline much more clearly than we have at the moment.
“It’s clearly a blow., It’s our leader in our backline. To miss him is never a positive thing. The good thing is we have some very good options. They need to stand up now.”
More to follow.
Who should replace Gabriel at centre-back?
Sky Sports’ Sam Blitz:
It’s a big week for Arsenal and the injury to Gabriel is threatening to derail it.
Tottenham at home – the biggest game in the Arsenal fixture calendar. Bayern Munich at home – where they welcome arguably the best striker in the world in Harry Kane. And then Chelsea away – who have “the best attack in the league by far” according to Arteta earlier this year. All in the space of seven days.
With the defender now set to be out for weeks, Arteta will have to find a way around not having one of the best defenders in the league for such a crucial period.
One option to replace him is Piero Hincapie, who was signed on Deadline Day to act as cover for Gabriel in the left centre-back role.
However, he is yet to start a Premier League game for the club – and four out of his five Arsenal appearances have come at left-back. His only start came in the Carabao Cup win over Brighton, a game which saw Arsenal concede six shots on target – which is very unlike them.
Another option is Cristhian Mosquera, who could line up alongside William Saliba. However, the 21-year-old has not started in the Premier League since the win over Newcastle, which saw him make a mistake for the Magpies’ opener and was hooked off at half-time.
The only game in which he has started alongside Saliba came at League One side Port Vale. Spurs at home on Sunday is a very different proposition.
Another option is to play Riccardo Calafiori at centre-back, and bring in a left-back option – either Hincapie or Myles Lewis-Skelly. But Arteta has spoken in the past about not wanting to change two positions when only one player is injured.
