Arsenal will most likely be without Ainsley Maitland-Niles for their New Year’s Day game against Fulham after the 21-year-old picked up a problem against Liverpool.

Arsenal are already without Rob Holding, Dinos Mavropanos, Hector Bellerin, Nacho Monreal, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Emile Smith Rowe, Mesut Ozil and Danny Welbeck as they get ready to play their first game of 2019. Shkodran Mustafi might also have a problem after he was removed at halftime, although that could have more to do with his ability to play football than his return from a hamstring problem.

After the thrashing at Anfield on Saturday, Unai Emery admitted that Arsenal needed to be better defensively (before explaining that water has this damp quality), but it’s hard to improve when you don’t have any fit players to put back there.

Following the game against Fulham Arsenal travel to Blackpool for their FA Cup clash that should give Emery a chance to rest a few first-teamers before their game against West Ham a week later.