Mikel Arteta is confident Arsenal defender Gabriel will be fine after coming off injured against Olympiacos, but stressed the need for the Gunners to protect their centre-back.

Arsenal’s medical staff signalled for Gabriel to leave the field in the 75th minute after assessing him on the pitch during their 2-0 Champions League victory at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.

Despite his exit, Gabriel was named in the Brazil squad for their upcoming friendlies with South Korea and Japan in the Far East.

And Arteta indicated the problem is not serious, though it remains to be seen if Gabriel will be fit to face West Ham on Saturday.

Arteta gives Gabriel update

“I think he’s going to be okay,” Arteta said after the game.

“He felt something, I think it was a kick, I’m not sure, in the first half, and he was a bit uncomfortable, and towards the second half he was there. 

“He could carry on, but we decided not to take any, really, because he’s played a lot of games, he comes from a long-term injury as well, and we need to look after him.”

Arsenal boss backs Gyokeres

Arsenal took the lead through Gabriel Martinelli’s 12th-minute tap-in after Viktor Gyokeres had struck the post following a great throughball from Martin Odegaard.

They did not put the game to bed until the second minute of injury time when substitute Bukayo Saka squirmed a near-post effort under the goalkeeper.

Gyokeres, though, has gone 398 minutes without a goal, drawing a blank in his last five games after netting in the win over Nottingham Forest last month.

Arteta, though, is happy with what he is seeing from the Sweden international.

“What I sense is that he’s doing better and better things every game,” Arteta said.

“He was denied a few times with blocks, and then he hit the post, but I think overall his performance was exceptional.

“Again, his work was really good, and yeah, we want him to be scoring goals, but if he doesn’t do that, at least to do everything as he’s doing for the team, because he’s helping the team a lot.”