Arsenal suffer fresh Gabriel Magalhaes setback as Mikel Arteta gives new injury timeline

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Arsenal are riding the crest of a wave following their 3-0 demolition of European champions Real Madrid.

Thierry Henry praised a ‘crazy’ Declan Rice performance as the Arsenal midfielder struck his first ever direct free kick past Thibaut Courtois before repeating the feat just thirteen minutes later.

Jurrien Timber embarrassed Vinicius Jr by stopping the Brazilian winger in everything he tried and Myles Lewis-Skelly impressed the Spanish media in a solid defensive display.

After the game, Mikel Arteta was rightly proud of his team’s performance but gave a worrying update on one of the Gunners key players this season.

READ MORE: William Saliba showed his true Arsenal colours with Real Madrid reaction in potential transfer hint

Mikel Arteta reveals Gabriel Magalhaes could miss start of next season

As per the Athletic, Arteta gave an update on the condition and fitness of defender Gabriel Magalhaes after the Brazilian completed hamstring surgery on the injury sustained against Fulham.

Arteta stated: “It’s been a season where we’ve had to adapt constantly, We’ve gone through a lot of things. We’ve lost probably our best defender [Gabriel] for four months but Jakub [Kiwior] comes in and delivers the performances that he’s been delivering.”

Four months would cast serious doubt over Gabriel’s involvement for the start of the next campaign for the Gunners and would be a huge blow to a player who will already be itching to return.

Jakub Kiwior replaced the Brazilian in the side and whilst he had some nervy moments, the Polish international was excellent on the whole in keeping out Real Madrid’s potent attack.

Jakub Kiwior match statistics v Real Madrid

There were some raised eyebrows when Arteta named Kiwior in the starting line up against Madrid ahead of Ben White but the Polish defender proved his worth on a special night at the Emirates Stadium.

Kylian Mbappe targeted Kiwior by playing off the shoulder of the Gunners defender and apart from a moment in the first half where David Raya bailed his side out with a fine save, the French star was kept quiet.

The test for Kiwior now will be whether he can repeat his performance in the white-hot atmosphere of the Bernabeu.

Real Madrid have never overturned a three goal deficit in Europe’s premier competition and Arsenal will not want that record to be broken in the return fixture in Spain.