West Ham’s chances of beating Arsenal could be boosted due to the injury of central defender Gabriel Magalhaes.

When a team is missing their best central defender, the opposing team usually gets a boost in terms of their attacking hopes. However, West Ham will be happier he is missing from a defensive point of view.

Gabriel has scored the most goals from set pieces in the Premier League since he joined them in 2020, with eighteen. Declan Rice’s corners and Garbiel’s headers has become one of the League’s most dangerous combinations over the past couple of years.

The Brazil International was forced off in Arsenal’s Champions League victory over Olympiacos on Wednesday. Arteta said “we will have to wait and see after training”, when he was asked to provide an update on the 27-year-old.

Heavily down to Gabriel, the Gunners have taken West Ham’s old mantle as the set piece kings of the Premier League, while the Hammers have become the absolute worst in the league at defending them.

The North Londoners have scored the most goals in the Premier League from corners this season with six. West Ham have conceded eight goals from corners in the Premier League this season, also the most in the PL.

Arsenal have become known for Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka’s inswinging corners, and that is the type of delivery West Ham have really struggled to defend in the opening few game weeks, especially when Mads Hermansen was in net.

If Gabriel is missing it will help because he is undoubtedly the biggest danger in the box of all of the Arsenal players. But even still, unless Nuno has miraculously sorted it out during the week, we need to concede as little corners as possible or we could get a have defeat.

With Gabriel’s availability unknown, there are also some certain to miss this match – Piero Hincapie and Kai Havertz are out for the Gunners, while West Ham could be without just Tomas Soucek and George Earthy.

Nuno Espírito Santo confirmed that Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Jean-Clair Todibo could return for the match at the Emirates in his pre-match press conference.