Journalist Charles Watts has spotted that Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes was smiling at the Emirates after the full-time whistle despite his notable injury concerns.
What's the latest Arsenal injury news?
The Gunners managed to put an end to a four-game winless streak in the Premier League on Tuesday evening as they got one over London rivals Chelsea.
Indeed, Mikel Arteta and co heaped the misery on Frank Lampard's men as they scored three goals in 34 minutes – with Martin Odegaard netting twice and Gabriel Jesus scoring too – to seal a relatively routine 3-1 victory against the Blues.
The only real disappointment on the night was the fact that centre-back Gabriel had to come off with an injury before the game was finished. When speaking to the press after the game, Arteta said (via football.london): "He [Gabriel] tried for 10 to 15 minutes and he couldn't carry on – a big concern."
However, in what could be good news for the Gunners, Watts did at least notice the £50k-p/w man was smiling on the pitch at full time – possibly suggesting the injury isn't too serious.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, he explained (4:37): "Gabriel did limp off injured, which is a bit of a worry ahead of that game against Newcastle. Hopefully he'll be alright.
"He came out on the pitch afterwards and was kind of smiling and talking to people. But he was limping.
"And he went down about four or five times during the second half and he kept having a bit of treatment and then carrying on. Eventually, he was replaced by Rob Holding with about 10 minutes to go, five minutes to go. So that's a little bit of a worry ahead of the game against Newcastle."
Will Gabriel Magalhaes play against Newcastle?
William Saliba has already spent plenty of time on the sidelines of late with injury and it feels unlikely that he'll be back to play against the Magpies after Arteta admitted "he hasn’t improved" in the build up to the Chelsea game.
In his place, Jakub Kiwior stepped into the side on Tuesday and performed well – with a 7.0 SofaScore rating – but that was his first league start and he'll want the experience of Gabriel beside him away at Newcastle.
For now it seems as though the Brazilian is in a race against time to make it back for that game but at the very least, his cheerful demeanour after fulltime may suggest this isn't an issue that will keep him out for the long term.
