As Arsenal struggled to break down a tightly bound Newcastle defence on Tuesday night, the lack of options available to Mikel Arteta on the bench to change things was stark. While Pep Guardiola was able to bring on Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish to change Manchester City's close encounter with Chelsea, the only player Arteta could bring on was right back Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Part of this is down to the injuries Arsenal are dealing with. Emile Smith Rowe, Gabriel Jesus and Reiss Nelson are all out, which limits Arteta's attacking options. Another aspect of this though is the slim nature of the Gunners squad generally. “I said from day one that we have a short squad because at the end we left some players," Arteta said in November. "It’s what we have. If everyone’s available and no one is injured we are OK, but the moment there is, we know what it is. It’s nothing new."
With that in mind it seems highly likely that Arsenal will include some youngsters in the group who travels to play Oxford for their FA Cup third round clash on Monday. Here football.london takes a look at who might be involved.
