Rob Holding will stay at Arsenal this season, with Mikel Arteta turning down the option of a loan move to Newcastle United for the player.

The Athletic report that Mikel Arteta is now keen to hold onto Rob Holding for the coming season, turning down a loan move to Newcastle United for the 24-year-old.

Originally, the plan was for Holding to join up with Newcastle after the Community Shield. However, David Luiz picked up a neck injury during the game and Arsenal delayed their decision. Holding is now likely to start in place of Luiz against Fulham on Saturday.

David Ornstein claims that regardless of the injury to Luiz, Arteta is now clear he wants to keep Holding for this season. Essentially, there’s little-to-no chance the loan move goes ahead now.

Calum Chambers, Pablo Mari and Shkodran Mustafi are all still out. Then there’s the potential departure of Sokratis Papastathopoulos to Napoli. Arsenal are much lower on centre-backs than they should be.

There are eight on the books right now, but only Holding, Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba are available and not close to a move away. There are also question marks about how ready Gabriel and Saliba are at this stage, having just joined.

Holding is arguably a nailed-on starter until the injuries clear up, so no wonder he’s staying. Kieran Tierney is also likely to have to keep filling in at centre-back for the time being.