Arsenal have got a major problem to worry about as one of their key defenders, Gabriel Magalhaes, suffered an injury ahead of their Premier League match against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
The Brazil Football Federation confirmed on Monday that Magalhaes was omitted from the first-team squad due to an injury. Juventus’ Gleison Bremer replaced him.
"I had already communicated previously that we work with a slightly more extensive list," said the Brazil boss Dorival Junior. "A pre-call, we can put it that way, and again, today, we had another casualty. Unfortunately, Gabriel Magalhães is uncalled. In his place, we are calling Bremer, from Juventus Turin, from Italy."
Brazil will face England at Wembley on March 23 and then Spain at the Santiago Bernabeu on March 26, two matches Magalhaes will miss. While sources have reported that Brazil opted to omit the defender as a safety precaution, it is however yet to be seen if he will be ready to take on Man City on March 31.
Just one point clear of Pep Guardiola’s men, Arsenal will head into the match as the table-toppers, similar to last season when the Gunners took on Man City being top of the table but ended up losing the title after William Saliba was ruled out with injury.
The Gunners spent the major part of the previous campaign on top of the league but a bad spell of four to five matches in April 2023 ended their hopes of winning the league title after 19 years.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta will be determined to make sure that history does not repeat itself as the Gunners are in pursuit of their first league title since 2004, when they won the famous “Invincibles” won the Premier League without losing a single match all season.
