diff --git a/spacy/pipeline/_parser_internals/arc_eager.pyx b/spacy/pipeline/_parser_internals/arc_eager.pyx
index 463980051..50b620b7a 100644
--- a/spacy/pipeline/_parser_internals/arc_eager.pyx
+++ b/spacy/pipeline/_parser_internals/arc_eager.pyx
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ from ...typedefs cimport hash_t, attr_t
 from ...strings cimport hash_string
 from ...structs cimport TokenC
 from ...tokens.doc cimport Doc, set_children_from_heads
+from ...tokens.token import MISSING_DEP_
 from ...training.example cimport Example
 from .stateclass cimport StateClass
 from ._state cimport StateC, ArcC
@@ -195,7 +196,8 @@ cdef class ArcEagerGold:
     def __init__(self, ArcEager moves, StateClass stcls, Example example):
         self.mem = Pool()
         heads, labels = example.get_aligned_parse(projectivize=True)
-        labels = [example.x.vocab.strings.add(label) if label is not None else 0 for label in labels]
+        labels = [label if label is not None else MISSING_DEP_ for label in labels]
+        labels = [example.x.vocab.strings.add(label) for label in labels]
         sent_starts = example.get_aligned_sent_starts()
         assert len(heads) == len(labels) == len(sent_starts), (len(heads), len(labels), len(sent_starts))
         self.c = create_gold_state(self.mem, stcls.c, heads, labels, sent_starts)
diff --git a/spacy/tests/doc/test_token_api.py b/spacy/tests/doc/test_token_api.py
index 4587f5601..d3fb044ee 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/doc/test_token_api.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/doc/test_token_api.py
@@ -259,8 +259,8 @@ def test_missing_head_dep(en_vocab):
     deps = ["nsubj", "ROOT", "dobj", "cc", "conj", None]
     words = ["I", "like", "London", "and", "Berlin", "."]
     doc = Doc(en_vocab, words=words, heads=heads, deps=deps)
-    pred_has_heads =  [t.has_head() for t in doc]
-    pred_deps =  [t.dep_ for t in doc]
+    pred_has_heads = [t.has_head() for t in doc]
+    pred_deps = [t.dep_ for t in doc]
     assert pred_has_heads == [True, True, True, True, True, False]
     assert pred_deps == ["nsubj", "ROOT", "dobj", "cc", "conj", MISSING_DEP_]
     example = Example.from_dict(doc, {"heads": heads, "deps": deps})
@@ -271,4 +271,4 @@ def test_missing_head_dep(en_vocab):
     assert ref_has_heads == [True, True, True, True, True, False]
     aligned_heads, aligned_deps = example.get_aligned_parse(projectivize=True)
     assert aligned_heads[5] == ref_heads[5]
-    assert aligned_deps[5] == MISSING_DEP_
\ No newline at end of file
+    assert aligned_deps[5] == MISSING_DEP_
diff --git a/spacy/tests/training/test_new_example.py b/spacy/tests/training/test_new_example.py
index 01ed5b5b6..6b6486b2b 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/training/test_new_example.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/training/test_new_example.py
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ def test_Example_from_dict_sentences():
     assert len(list(ex.reference.sents)) == 1
 
 
-def test_Example_from_dict_with_parse():
+def test_Example_missing_deps():
     vocab = Vocab()
     words = ["I", "like", "London", "and", "Berlin", "."]
     deps = ["nsubj", "ROOT", "dobj", "cc", "conj", "punct"]