Just eight days ago, I asked Mikel Arteta whether the lack of signings in January had left him frustrated as Arsenal manager. Highlighting how he had perhaps been more vocal than ever before in his interviews and press conferences regarding his desire for the club to sign a centre-forward in the wake of injuries and shortness.

His answer was quick and to the point. However, what he closed with has sadly come bear much faster than what he perhaps thought it might do.

"No," he replied. "Because when you try your best and you do things with the right process and you see the people that we all share the same intentions and wills and after you don't achieve it, for sure there are things to learn from it, there always are.

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"But you have to move on, and that's a piece that was important in the moment, and now we have to move on, and nobody knows whether it is better to have done it or not. We'll know, probably at the end of the season."

It turns out we know just over a week later. It was better to have done it, than to not.

Kai Havertz is reportedly injured having suffered a hamstring problem while away with the team at their warm-weather training camp in Dubai that could cost him the rest of the campaign. It means that he joins Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, who are out with their own fitness issues.

It leaves Arteta with Leandro Trossard, Ethan Nwaneri and Raheem Sterling as the only options from his first team. The depth will be made up of youth players like Ismail Kabia and Nathan Butler-Oyedeji. Charles Sagoe Jr has also returned from a loan deal and will likely be included too.

Arsenal may have a kinder schedule but it doesn’t take away the challenge of the games they do have. Leicester and West Ham come before a very tough test away at Nottingham Forest and then will be a Champions League last-16 tie against either of two Italian sides Milan or Juventus, or a Dutch side in PSV Eindhoven or Feyenoord.

Then comes a trip to Old Trafford before the arrival at the Emirates Stadium of Chelsea… Arsenal cannot afford to drop points if they have any hope of claiming a first league title in 21 years. Now they've left themselves short in attack when they needed it most, and while an avoidance to sign 'bodies' might have been a priority of Arteta's, it may end up being a case of self-imposed obstacles that need not have been implemented in times of dire need.