Ten Hag claimed Arsenal had been ‘lucky’ with injuries. Even at the time, this was hardly a fair assessment.

Zinchenko missed 8 games in the first half of the season through injury, Partey 5, Jesus has been out since December and Elneny, Nelson and Smith-Rowe have missed most of the season. However Ten Hag’s comments still seemed to jinx the Gunners, with Tomiyasu, who had struggled for fitness previously, now ruled out for the season, as well as Nketiah. Trossard suffered an injury scare but recovered quickly, and Partey and Saliba are doubts for the weekends battle with Leeds.

It is Saliba’s injury however which is of biggest concern. Reports have been mixed, with the consensus that Saliba’s back injury will need to be managed carefully as the club monitor its severity.

In isolation, the club are well prepared to deal with Saliba’s absence, as they can simply revert to last years set-up of Tomiyasu at right-back and White at centre-back, however Tomiyasu’s season-ending injury has presented a tricky problem as we head into the defining period of the season.

With Cedric and Maitland-Niles out on loan, and Walters yet to make his senior debut, Arsenal have no natural alternative to White at right-back. Keeping White in his current role would be sensible, as he has performed excellently there, but would mean Holding, or perhaps Kiwior, filling in at centre-back.

Holding has been a great servant to the club with a lot to offer, but he is a different profile to Saliba. Whilst he excels in defending his own box, he lacks the recovery pace for Arsenal’s high line and the ball-playing ability of Saliba. Kiwior may have these, but has been shaky so far and usually operates as a left centre-back.

Another alternative is to play White centrally and use Partey at right-back, or one of Zinchenko/Tierney. However again, an unnatural fit may complicate things.

Ideally, Arteta will use Holding, and hope Saliba can manage the big games against City, Liverpool and Chelsea, but it will be intriguing to see how Arteta manages this potential crisis with a title on the line.