Mikel Arteta ‘scared’ for Arsenal star after injury fear and confirms fresh issue | Football

Mikel Arteta feared Gabriel Magalhaes had suffered a serious injury just minutes before his goal that sealed Arsenal’s victory over Everton.

The Gunners moved level on points with Premier League leaders Manchester City after seeing off The Toffees with a 2-0 victory on Saturday afternoon.

Ezri Konsa opened the scoring after just seven minutes but Everton had their chances to draw level with Thierno Barry and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall wasting their best opportunities.

But on his 200^th appearance for the club, Gabriel latched onto Ben Whitre’s cross to find the bottom corner on 68 minutes to seal all three points.

Earlier in the second-half, the Brazil international’s game looked to be over, staying down after stretching to make a clearance.

The centre-half was in real discomfort, requiring treatment from the club’s medical staff with Arteta readying a substitute. Gabriel was able to shake it off however, returning to action to see out the game.

Arteta heaped praise on his defender after the game but admitted there was huge concern when he went down.

‘He is a clear example of when I talk about the mentality of the team,’ Arteta said in his post-match press conference.

‘The mentality of the team is the mentality of the players. And he is a great example of that. We were all scared not only for the way he went down but for the reaction of the players that were next to him.

‘Immediately he says he wants to continue and he scores the goal that helps us win the game.’

He added, speaking to Match of the Day: ‘It was a really worrying action. We know Gabi and how tough and strong he is – and he seems to be okay.’

Arteta made five changes following Wednesday’s 2-2 Champions League draw away to Bayern Munich with Myles Lewis-Skelly starting ahead of Riccardo Calafiori at left-back.

The Italy international came on midway through the second-half but was seen struggling late on with Noni Madueke briefly slotting at left-back.

Arteta was reluctant to make that change but admitted a fresh issue for Calafiori forced his hand.

‘Yeah I wasn’t that mad to change those two from their positions. It was because he [Calafiori] had a slight issue, we don’t know what it is, it seems to be something very small, but he was cautious about it.’

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