Arsenal suffered another set-back in their left-back options on Tuesday, with u23 starter Tolaji Bola suffering an injury against Northampton Town.

Bola only recently returned from an injury to make it back into the starting lineup for the Arsenal u23s, and he’d been in good form over his first few appearances of the season.

Unfortunately, the 20-year-old left-back had to be withdrawn after just 30 minutes against Northampton Town in Arsenal’s opening EFL Trophy match, further reducing the club’s already limited left-back options.

Dominic Thompson left for Brentford over the summer, Joel Lopez is injured, Zech Medley is injured, and now Bola is as well. In the first team, Kieran Tierney is injured and Nacho Monreal appears to be leaving.

That leaves Sead Kolasinac and pretty much no one else from the first-team down to the u18s. Centre-back Mazeed Ogungbo has been filling in on the left for the u18s, whilst Tobi Omole can do the same for the u23s, though he was sent off against Northampton.

Omole hasn’t started a single game in 2019, so whilst he’ll make a useful backup for the u23s, Arsenal would be taking a huge risk relying on him for the first-team.

If Monreal does go, it would leave the club extremely short on the left in September. Kolasinac presumably can’t play all six games in a row (or perhaps even more if Tierney doesn’t return on October 1st).

Ainsley Maitland-Niles could shift across, but Arsenal are just as short at right-back right now. Bukayo Saka could potentially drop back, as he has played as a full-back for the England youth teams before, but he didn’t play any matches at left-back for Arsenal last season.

At this stage, letting Monreal go is just creating an unnecessary problem for seemingly little benefit.