Arsenal travel to Southampton on Saturday for a 3pm kick-off they simply have to win, so is anyone back from the treatment room?

While Arsenal have certainly went into bigger games with more players missing, the thinness of this current squad, and the key players who are missing, mean that these injuries are hitting harder than losing just three players should.

Thomas Partey will, of course miss out, with his thigh problem and all indications are that Granit Xhaka will play in the middle with Nuno Tavares coming back into the side.

There had been little indication of when Partey will return prior to Friday when Arteta all but said his season was over.

“The news that we got after having another assessment, they are not great,” he said.

“It’s not looking very positive his availability this season.

“We’ll have to wait and see, he’s trying to get back as quickly as possible but at the moment, we are not very optimistic about it.”

Takehiro Tomiyasu did not take part in team training sessions on Thursday yet again, so, it seems unlikely he will feature against Southampton.

Kieran Tierney, as we know, is out for the season.

Alexandre Lacazette was also missing from training this week. “There are private reasons that I can’t comment on,” Arteta said, “but I have no other team news apart from the guys we discussed.

“We will see if he’s available. It’s a good possibility that that’s the case.”