Arsenal: Gabriel Paulista injury offers tactical uncertainty and versatility

Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Gabriel Paulista will miss Saturday’s FA Cup final. His injury offers tactical uncertainty and versatility for Arsenal.

The biggest game of Arsenal’s season is here. After a turbulent and despairing campaign in which they had to toil through times of great difficulty, much of it self-afflicted, it would certainly be an uplifting end to see the third FA Cup lifted in just four years.

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It has been a competition that has served Arsene Wenger well throughout his time in England. He has won it six times, matched by only one other manager, and no one else since World War II. In fact, Arsenal have won more FA Cups than any other club barring Manchester United, who equalled their record of 12 last season.

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However, in their most recent victories, they overcame lesser competition in the final, beating Hull City and then Aston Villa in consecutive years. This time, that is far from the case. They travel to Wembley to face the best team in the country; Chelsea are a team of a very different calibre to their recent finalists and will be a mightily difficult team to overcome.

And they must do so without two of their starting centre-halves. Laurent Koscielny, with a mistimed and misguided, lunged tackle that saw red will miss the final thanks to a suspension, while Gabriel Paulista, someone who played impeccably with Koscielny on the sidelines in the win over Everton, suffered ligament damage in his knee, and will now miss the next six-eight weeks, as Wenger confirmed in his press conference on Wednesday morning.

The absence to Gabriel was expected given that he was stretchered off and was in visible pain. But that does not lessen the impact. With Wenger implementing a 3-4-3 system in recent weeks, he is need of three, rather than just two, starting calibre centre-halves to ensure that the formation holds its defensive shape, structure and success.

But without Gabriel, Koscielny, and potentially Shkodran Mustafi who is struggling with a concussion and sickness, Wenger will have just Per Mertesacker, Rob Holding and Nacho Monreal to turn to at the position. There is a great uncertainty surrounding the trio, with the question hanging over them of whether they would be able to form a disciplined and communicative defence having not played with another. It may also force Wenger to revert back to a four-at-the-back formation, meaning that he can start just two centre-halves.

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Whatever Wenger does decide to do, Gabriel’s untimely absence does bring a great lack of clarity, as well as a tactical versatility that Wenger will have to carefully navigate. His team selection is sure to be interesting.