Arsenal: Mikel Arteta facing major problem with no perfect solution for Tottenham derby clash

As flicks of a football go, it might well prove one of the most consequential of the new season, which is quite the feat, given said ball was not even in play at the time.

With the outside of his right boot and a petulant but hardly extraordinary nudge, Declan Rice earned himself a whack from Joel Veltman and the first red card of his Premier League career, cost Arsenal two points in what became a 1-1 draw with Brighton and now leaves Mikel Arteta with a midfield conundrum heading into next weekend’s north London derby.

In its simplicity, that synopsis leaves out the part played by referee Chris Kavanagh, pernickety and overzealous with his brandishing of a second yellow card, not to mention inconsistent, having let Brighton’s Joao Pedro off scot-free with a more blatant offence in the first half.

No sense of injustice, though, can help Arsenal and Arteta now, knowing they must go to Tottenham and win the other side of the international break, or else risk going to the Etihad seven days later already trailing Manchester City by four or five points.

Rice, in truth, had not made the most impactful start to the season even before last weekend. He had not been bad, by any means, but the comfortable home win against Wolves did not need him to shine, while away at Aston Villa, the Arsenal midfield struggled against the power of Amadou Onana and Morgan Rogers.

A slowish start ought really to be no surprise. Rice is, like several high-profile players across the league, coming in colder than ideal after a short pre-season on the back of a gruelling summer tournament at which, he has admitted, he was shy of his best.

The 25-year-old is also playing, for now at least, on the left of a midfield three. With Jurrien Timber just bedding in at left-back and Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard battling for one place on the wing, that half of Arsenal’s attack is not yet operating with anything like the fluency of the Ben White-Martin Odegaard-Bukayo Saka trifecta on the right.

And yet his absence for the trip to Spurs remains a colossal blow, made more so by the fact that new signing Mikel Merino will not be available either, having suffered a shoulder injury in his first training session last week that leaves the Euros-winning Spain midfielder facing nearly two months out.

The plan, it is thought, will eventually be for both of them to play together in Arsenal’s best midfield, with Rice returning to his favourite position at the base and Merino, who was at the Emirates on Saturday in a sling, operating as the left No8.

Without either for the trip up the Seven Sisters Road, how does Arteta adjust? Jorginho is the other senior central midfield option in Arsenal’s squad, but neither he nor Thomas Partey are suited to playing on the advanced left of a three. Playing the pair might require a tweak of system, with a double-pivot and Odegaard as a more central No10.

Alternatively, Kai Havertz could drop deeper, to play in the role for which he was originally signed.

Moving the German, though, would weaken one of Arsenal’s strong suits — at centre-forward, Havertz has 17 goals and assists in 17 games since mid-February — and in any case, would also rely on Gabriel Jesus being fit.

The versatile Trossard would be another option, moving inside off the wing, though that would be an aggressive move and risk leaving Partey exposed, given the Ghanaian has looked ponderous across the first three games.

There is, then, no perfect solution. The question for Arteta over the next 10 days is of whether he can come up with one good enough.