For the third time in as many seasons, Arsenal have suffered an early FA Cup exit.
Despite a good showing at the Etihad Stadium, admittedly with a largely rotated side, Friday night's defeat at the hands of Manchester City means the Gunners have not progressed to round five of the competition since they lifted the trophy during the 2019/2020 campaign.
Ironically all three losses have been by the same 1-0 scoreline and away from home as this latest setback follows on from being knocked out by then-Championship outfit Nottingham Forest last season and the fourth-round defeat against Southampton just over two years ago.
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As a result, the north London outfit - and the most successful team in the competition - won't have the chance to lift the famous trophy for the 15th time. But defeat in Manchester could accelerate some transfer activity at the Emirates Stadium - just like it has done for the last two January windows in a row.
For example, on the bench at St Mary's for the fourth-round tie against the Saints in 2021 were Arsenal academy graduates Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock. Neither made an appearance in that game and a few days later they joined West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle United respectively on loan.
Meanwhile, last season's defeat against Forest triggered a host of departures as Mikel Arteta trimmed down his first-team squad. Sead Kolasinac and Calum Chambers joined Marseille and Aston Villa respectively on free transfers and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang saw his contract terminated by mutual consent before sealing a move to Barcelona.
Furthermore, Folarin Balogun joined Middlesbrough on loan three days later before Pablo Mari sealed a temporary move to Udinese 11 days before the transfer window closed. Interestingly, the timing of these deals may hint at what's in store for the remaining days of the month.
Perhaps it's just a coincidence that Arteta and sporting director Edu decided to let all seven players leave one way or another following the club's early FA Cup exit, yet those decisions did make a lot of sense as there were fewer games for the remainder of both seasons.
However, even with the Europa League to negotiate from March onwards, losing to Man City coupled with the crashing out of the Carabao Cup in the third-round against Brighton & Hove Albion means Arsenal have a maximum of 27 games left to play across all competitions.
And with Arteta already settled on his strongest XI, those on the fringes of the first-team squad could be allowed to leave between now and deadline day.
One deal that will soon be completed is Cedric Soares' loan move to Fulham. Although it should be pointed out that the FA Cup exit has no impact on this particular transfer as football.london have previously reported that an announcement was due before the end of the week.
Elsewhere, Marquinhos is the one remaining Arsenal senior player that would benefit from a loan move. The £3million signing from Sao Paulo last summer turned in some impressive displays for the under-21s earlier in the season and marked his competitive debut with a goal and assist in the Europa League against FC Zurich.
But he's played just one minute in the Premier League so far and could find regular game time even harder to come by once Gabriel Jesus and Reiss Nelson return to full fitness.
Now, as revealed by football.london earlier in the month, Marquinhos, at the time, was unlikely to leave unless Arsenal managed to bring a forward in. Perhaps the situation has changed following the arrival of Leandro Trossard as the club might be open to letting the Brazilian head elsewhere to continue his development.
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