Konstantinos Mavropanos and Cohen Bramall have been left out of Arsenal’s Europa League squad, leaving supporters concerned and confused about why.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 10: Konstantinos Mavropanos of Arsenal warms up prior to the Carabao Cup Semi-Final First Leg match between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on January 10, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 10: Konstantinos Mavropanos of Arsenal warms up prior to the Carabao Cup Semi-Final First Leg match between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on January 10, 2018, in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

Arsenal have submitted their Europa League squad for the second half of the campaign, but they ended up leaving out two eligible players in Cohen Bramall and Konstantinos Mavropanos.

To explain why: Every squad of 25 must include eight homegrown players. In Arsenal’s case, their eighth player (Emi Martinez) left for Reading on loan, meaning the club have a squad of 24 and seven homegrown players instead (via Jeorge Bird).

The seven homegrown players in the squad are as follows:

  1. Deyan Iliev
  2. Hector Bellerin
  3. Carl Jenkinson
  4. Rob Holding
  5. Aaron Ramsey
  6. Alex Iwobi
  7. Danny Welbeck

After that, Arsenal can name another 17 non-homegrown senior players. Here are the 17 they’ve chosen:

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  1. Petr Cech
  2. Bernd Leno
  3. Sokratis Papastathopoulos
  4. Laurent Koscielny
  5. Stephan Lichtsteiner
  6. Nacho Monreal
  7. Shkodran Mustafi
  8. Sead Kolasinac
  9. Mohamed Elneny
  10. Henrikh Mkhitaryan
  11. Mesut Özil
  12. Lucas Torreira
  13. Denis Suarez
  14. Matteo Guendouzi
  15. Granit Xhaka
  16. Alexandre Lacazette
  17. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

You can also name a B-list of under-21 players, but Mavropanos doesn’t qualify for that, as you have to have been at the club for two full years. Bramall doesn’t qualify because he wasn’t 21 or under at the start of the campaign. The only way to include either of the defenders would have been to leave out one of the above 17.

Understandably, Arsenal fans on Twitter are all either trying to get their head around the rules, or they’re growing concerned at the prospect of having to go through the Europa League knockout stages without such a promising young defender.

The homegrown rule is in place to encourage English clubs to develop their own talent, but it becomes a bit of a joke when you’re stuck with three homegrown players with long-term injuries in the squad. There should be a common-sense rule in place for emergency scenarios like this.

Finally, here’s the club’s B-list, although this isn’t set in stone, as you can alter the B-list up to 24 hours before each match:

  1. Arthur Okonkwo
  2. Daniel Ballard
  3. Tolaji Bola
  4. Zech Medley
  5. Joseph Olowu
  6. Tobi Omole
  7. Jordi Osei-Tutu
  8. Julio Pleguezuelo
  9. Dominic Thompson
  10. Robbie Burton
  11. Charlie Gilmour
  12. Ben Sheaf
  13. Nathan Tormey
  14. Gedion Zelalem
  15. Harry Clarke
  16. Trae Coyle
  17. Joe Willock
  18. Eddie Nketiah
  19. Emile Smith Rowe
  20. Xavier Amaechi
  21. Tyreece John-Jules
  22. Bukayo Saka
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