Arsenal's set piece threat remains despite Gabriel's absence

If no one had realised before, Arsenal are quite good at scoring from set pieces, but many believed their threat in dead ball situations would diminish after Gabriel Magalhaes was recently ruled out with injury.

The Brazilian has a knack for netting from corners and is usually the prime target when either Declan Rice or Bukayo Saka send their teasing deliveries into the opposition box. However, since he was struck to the sideline, his presence was no longer in the area.

While one of the Gunners' best scoring trait was under threat of being non-existent, they proved in their Champions League win over Bayern Munich that their dominance from set pieces still remains.

Arsenal's set piece threat remains despite Gabriel's absence

If someone had told you ahead of the north London derby that Arsenal scored four goals against Tottenham and none of them came from a set piece, you probably would have laughed. However, that was the truth and with that being their first game without Gabriel, fans would have been forgiven for thinking their threat was no more.

That lack of scoring didn't last long though as against Bayern, the Gunners found the breakthrough when Jurrien Timber rose highest to meet Saka's corner and head past Manuel Neuer to net his third goal of the season.

Their next two goals came from open play, but there was no denying that they showed their set piece threat still remained, even without Gabriel, and Arteta will be hoping that can continue to be the case over the coming weeks.

While the Brazil international is the main figure when it comes to set piece scoring, there are a number of other players in the Arsenal squad that can be a source of danger in the box.

The Gunners have seven more outfield players that stand at six feet or taller, including William Saliba, Viktor Gyökeres and Riccardo Calafiori, all of whom have previously scored from corners while there are shorter squad members such as Ben White, Christian Nørgaard, Leandro Trossard and Martín Zubimendi who are also great at winning aerial battles.

Timber, who stands at 5ft 10 in, even showed that height isn't always important when being the dominant man in the air for set pieces when netting against Bayern.

In their two games without Gabriel, they created eight shot actions from dead ball passes (via FBref) and played 85 passes from set piece situations with plenty of those causing problems for the respective opposition.

Regardless, Arsenal still have plenty of players to pose a threat from set pieces even without Gabriel available. They showed that against Bayern and while it likely won't be the primary focus of their game plan over the coming weeks, they will certainly have the capability to still score from dead ball situations.