After an awful start to their Premier League campaign against Brentford on Friday, things could be about to get a whole lot worse for Arsenal as they prepare for back-to-back fixtures against the reigning Champions League and Premier League champions in Chelsea and Manchester City.
The Gunners already knew they were going to be without Thomas Partey, Gabriel and Eddie Nketiah for these games, but now football.london understands that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette are also doubts for the visit of the Blues on Sunday.
The pair were missing due to illness at the Brentford Community Stadium and Mikel Arteta chose to deal with this by replacing them with Flo Balogun and Gabriel Martinelli.
Balogun unfortunately struggled to get into the game touching the ball just 13 times before coming off around the hour mark, but it was the Brazilian for whom an even bigger problem emerged.
Starting on the left Martinelli was tasked with drifting in from wide to the centre forward role to get on the end of chances.
This is a tactic we have seen deployed by Arteta throughout pre-season with Balogun and Nketiah both starting matches on the left wing despite being traditional number nines.
However, at the Brentford Community Stadium, Martinelli looked confused by what exactly he was supposed to be doing in the role and struggled to form any real chemistry with Kieran Tierney behind him.
The Scot was an offensive threat throughout, and for much of the night it seemed as though Arsenal's only attacking tactic was to give it to him and hope for something to come from one of his crosses.
Despite seeing plenty of the ball though, Tierney made just one pass to Martinelli all match, with the Brazilian making precisely zero in the opposite direction (as per Orbinho).
Any arguments to suggest that was just a quirk of the Gunners left flank on the night were but to bed by the fact that once Bukayo Saka came on to play left wing around the hour mark, Tierney made six passes to the England international, with seven balls going the other way.
This not necessarily something new though.
For much of last season Martinelli found game time hard to come by, but as it became clear Arsenal's main focus was going to be on the Europa League for the final months of the season, the Brazilian was given more minutes in the Premier League.
He used this time to show exactly why he is so highly rated popping up with a goal against Sheffield United.
It was his performance against Newcastle a few weeks later though that really stood out as the 20-year-old popped up with an assist for Aubameyang in a man of the match display.
Key to this brilliant showing was Martinelli's propensity to hug the left touchline right up until the final third where he would receive the ball from David Luiz 's long passes. From that point he looked equally comfortable cutting inside to shoot on his right as he did dribbling to the by-line to put in a cross on his left.
It was something that Arteta picked up on his press conference after the game.
“He had an assist and it was an important moment. He had some good moments off the left," the Spaniard said.
This performance however, came at a time when Tierney was not in the side as he recovered from a knee injury.
Instead on the day it was Granit Xhaka who played left back. The Swiss international's lack of mobility meant that instead of replicating Tierney's usual trick of bombing up the left wing to put in fantastic delivery, he moved central to help the build-up play in midfield and hardly ever got beyond Martinelli.
This allowed the Brazilian to stay wide and cause damage in a way that he perhaps would not have been able to do if Arsenal's first choice left back had been fit for the game.
"I think having Granit behind him helps him in a way because he’s more in the line, in the last line, on the left when he is more comfortable," Arteta said of the pairing after the game.
"With Kieran it’s a little bit different. Those relationships we have to feel."
With Aubameyang and Lacazette both doubts for Sunday's game against Chelsea you would get the feeling that the Spaniard might be tempted to change his left flank.
Saka is likely to be fit enough to start the game and could come in, while shifting Nicolas Pepe over from the right is also an option.
This could see Martinelli moved up front for the match which is where many believe the Brazilian is destined to end up. With two of the Gunners key attacking threats possibly out it will be crucial to get the Olympic gold medallist firing on all cylinders if they are to have any chance of winning the game.
But with Tierney set to be a fixture in the Arsenal side for years to come, the lack of chemistry between him and Martinelli has to be a concern as the 20-year-old seeks to establish himself as a regular at the Emirates.
