Mikel Arteta says that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been left out of the Arsenal squad for the FA Cup fourth round clash against Southampton due to personal reasons.
The Gunners announced a number of changes for the trip to St Mary's, with an attacking line including Nicolas Pepe, Willian, Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah.
Bernd Leno was named in the starting line up, with both Runar Alex Runarsson and new signing Mat Ryan among the nine substitutes.
In defence, Hector Bellerin starts at right-back, with Rob Holding and Gabriel Magalhaes at centre-back, and Cedric Soares on the left against his former team.
Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka started in central midfield, with Thomas Partey among the substitutes.
Elsewhere on the bench, Calum Chambers, David Luiz, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Joe Willock, Bukayo Saka and Alexandre Lacazette made up the numbers.
But there was no place for Aubameyang, with Arteta revealing that although the Gabon international had made the trip to Southampton, he was forced to head back to London on Saturday morning.
"He had a personal matter in the last few hours and we had to send him back," Arteta told the club website.
Aubameyang's unexpected absence explains why there are two goalkeepers among the substitutes, and why Arteta was unable to bring an extra attacker or youth team member such as Folarin Balogun.
