Mikel Arteta names player Arsenal are ‘missing’ after title slip-up against Fulham

Joe Williams
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta
Mikel Arteta looks frustrated during a Premier League match.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta admitted that the Gunners are missing Gabriel Magalhaes after dropping points against Fulham in a 1-1 draw on Sunday.

William Saliba tapped in on 52 minutes to cancel out Raul Jimenez’s first-half opener for the Cottagers with the gaming ending in VAR controversy.

Arsenal centre-back Gabriel has struggled with a knee injury recently and was not named in Arteta’s squad to face Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Gabriel missed their midweek win over Manchester United too, while Riccardo Calafiori, Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Oleksandr Zinchenko were also absent against Fulham.

And, speaking after the match against Fulham, it was put to Arteta if Arsenal were “missing” Gabriel with the Spaniard replying: “Yes.”

The Arsenal boss added: “But I’m really pleased with the performance of Jakub [Kiwior] and we had to change the whole unit as well. We had Jakub there and Jurrien [Timber] on the left which we’ve never played before and Thomas [Partey] as a full back, and okay he does it.

“Jorgi comes in and he was excellent. That’s it, they were not available and we have to respond to that and I’m very happy with the way the team did.”

Arteta hopes to have Gabriel, Zinchenko and Calafiori back fit for their Champions League match against Monaco in midweek.

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When asked whether the Arsenal trio would be fit to face the Ligue 1 club, Arteta responded: “I hope. But it’s more a question for the doctors and physios to understand where we are.

“We are missing a lot of players in the backline. The good thing is that whatever we put there they respond. They respond with a good attitude and performance.”

VAR ruled out a late winning goal for Bukayo Saka with Arsenal winger Gabriel Martinelli ruled to be offside in the build up to the disallowed goal.

On the disallowed goal, Arteta added: “That emotionally was tough because we were so happy and we really dug in to take it and it was taken away.

“Gutted that we didn’t win it, because I think we deserved to win from the beginning to the end.”

“We did almost everything that we had to do to win it. But this is the quality of the opposition, with one chance they score a goal.

“And then the margins of the league as well. For millimetres we could have been sitting here with three points after a really strong and dominant performance against a really good team.”