Arsenal's return to Premier League action has been far from plain sailing with defeats at Man City and Brighton only telling half the story.
Away to Pep Guardiola's men, the Gunners endured a hapless evening as they lost both Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari to injury while substitute David Luiz gifted the hosts their opening two goals and was dismissed.
On their trip to Brighton at the weekend, things went from bad to worse as the Gunners lost keeper Bernd Leno to what looks like to be a long-term injury after a collision with Neal Maupay, who went on to score the Gulls' stoppage-time winner.
To compound matters, midfielder Matteo Guendouzi also looks set to be receive a ban after confronting fellow Frenchman Maupay at the full-time whistle and grabbing him by the neck.
It's fair to say Project Restart has been nothing short of a disaster for Mikel Arteta's men so far, and it seems their issues may have stemmed from the training ground.
According to The Athletic, Arsenal's plans for their trip to City last Wednesday were thrown into disarray after three players missed three days of training.
It meant that tactics that had been worked on to nullify the threat of Guardiola's men, which Arteta would have known all about having previously worked as City's assistant before joining Arsenal, had to be changed at short notice.
The three players who missed training are unnamed, but it would have been a blow for Arteta to lose the trio so close to such an important match.
The Spaniard now faces easily the toughest period of his fledgling managerial career with the Gunners needing to find a good run of form soon to avoid missing out on European football altogether next season.
The 38-year-old admitted after the defeat at Brighton that it would be hard to pick his players up, but that is what he must do as he aims to close the 11-point gap to the top four.
