Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta must serve a touchline suspension for Saturday's Premier League showdown with Aston Villa at Villa Park.
The Spaniard picked up his third booking of the Premier League season during Tuesday's 4-3 win over Luton Town, apparently for his 'excessive' celebrations after Declan Rice headed home an injury-time winner.
Assistant head coach Albert Stuivenberg will be tasked with overseeing operations - as he was versus Manchester City in January 2022 - and a quintet of players will remain out through injury this weekend.
Following Tuesday's success, Arteta confirmed that Takehiro Tomiyasu would be out for "a while" with a calf injury, joining Emile Smith Rowe (knee), Fabio Vieira (groin), Thomas Partey (thigh) and Jurrien Timber (knee) in the medical bay.
David Raya could count himself fortunate to be on the winning side at Kenilworth Road, having made two errors for Elijah Adebayo and Ross Barkley's goals, but not a single soul should be expecting Arteta to drop the Brentford loanee for Aaron Ramsdale.
As such, Raya is primed to start behind an identical backline of Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba and Ben White, the latter of whom will step in for the stricken Tomiyasu.
Boasting three goals from his last four appearances, the reborn Kai Havertz put in a terrific all-around display against Luton and should hold his spot alongside Martin Odegaard and Rice in the engine room.
Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli amassed four direct contributions between them versus Luton, and the trio should link arms once again in the final third.
Arsenal possible starting lineup: Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Odegaard, Rice, Havertz; Saka, Jesus, Martinelli
Ben Knapton
