Mikel Arteta has confirmed that captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will not be available for Arsenal's Carabao Cup quarter-final against Manchester City on Tuesday evening.
Aubameyang, who finally ended his goal drought Southampton, is suffering from a calf injury and missed his side's miserable 2-1 defeat by Everton on Saturday.
The news comes as yet another blow to Arteta, whose position has become uncertain amid a disastrous run of form that has left Arsenal languishing in 15th in the table.
Speaking ahead of the tie, Arteta said: "Auba is not fit for tomorrow, that's for sure. [He] is feeling much better.
"He was more positive yesterday (Sunday) than in the previous two days. He will have another scan in the next few days and we will see how quickly we can get him back in the team.
"He knows how important he is for us, he feels the responsibility and he is trying his best to be fit as quick as possible."
Arsenal are currently just four points clear of the relegation zone and have won just four of their 14 Premeir League games this season.
Questioned over his position, Arteta added: "Well, when you are in this position and you have the points that we have at the moment, you have to look and be careful because we haven’t been a lot of times in this position.
"I think last year when I came in we were in a very similar position and the same talk was around the place, it is normal because we need to start picking up points and then forget about it and start to look up the table much further.
"But it is a normal thing to do when you just look at the table and get the conclusions pretty quickly."
