Mikel Arteta has had his hands tied behind his back in terms of selection recently.
The Arsenal boss had Albert Sambi Lokonga as his only fit senior central midfielder for games against Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Burnley last month amid suspensions for Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny being away at AFCON.
To add to that the Spaniard has seen his squad depth gutted in January by the departures of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Flo Balogun, Pablo Mari, Sead Kolasinac, Calum Chambers and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
