by Nia Griffiths

It’s official: Abou Diaby is no longer in the Arsenal team.

When a career with so much potential is tragically ended by a stupid challenge, you can’t help but feel a tad melancholy but it was hard to argue with the club’s decision to let Diaby go.

Even so, seeing his squad number handed down to 20-year-old Hector Bellerin was a little sad.

Bellerin, who used to wear #39, now inherits the midfielder’s digits.

The right-back tweeted after joining the first team in training on Monday: