Arsenal are falling apart at the seams. And Mikel Arteta knows it.
The Gunners boss has admitted his squad is trapped in a dangerous circle as their injury crisis reached absurd new levels this week. Max Dowman, a 15-year-old winger who was supposed to be the future, is now out for weeks with ankle ligament damage.
A 15-year-old. Injured. In a behind-closed-doors friendly. You could not make this up.
The numbers are absolutely brutal
Let us talk stats for a moment, because they tell the whole sorry story. Arsenal have suffered 28 injuries this season - the highest of any Premier League club. Since the start of last campaign, that number rises to a staggering 95 injuries. Ninety-five.
Only Brighton have had it worse over that period. And at least the Seagulls are not trying to win a league title.
Right now, Arteta is missing William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, and Cristhian Mosquera - all three of his senior centre-backs. Kai Havertz has not kicked a ball all season. Leandro Trossard limped off against Villa and did not travel to Belgium for the Club Brugge match. Declan Rice is out sick.
And now Dowman, who was earmarked as a future star, joins the treatment room queue.
Arteta defends his methods
When you have this many injuries, questions get asked. Is the manager working his players too hard? Are the training methods too intense? Is there something wrong at London Colney?
Arteta was having none of it.
No, because we do not have time to train. Today we have done 20 minutes, so surely it is not because we overtrained the players.
Fair point. But then came the admission that will worry every Arsenal fan.
Obviously when you are missing players, you are loading other players and there is a consequence to that, and it is a really dangerous circle. We have played a lot of games with a lot of players missing and that puts a lot of stress, and then you get more injuries.
A dangerous circle. His words, not mine. And he is absolutely right.
The pattern is terrifying
Here is the thing that should keep Arteta up at night. The injuries are not random - they come in clusters, in the same positions, over and over again.
Last season it was the strikers. Gabriel Jesus went down with an ACL injury in January. That put extra load on Kai Havertz, who then tore his hamstring in February. Arsenal had to play Mikel Merino up front. A midfielder. As a striker.
This season? Same story. Havertz got injured in pre-season. That overloaded Viktor Gyokeres, who promptly hurt his groin. Back came Merino as an emergency number nine. And after seven consecutive starts for club and country in a month, he was dragged off at half-time against Villa, completely shattered.
At centre-back it is even worse. Saliba out. Gabriel out. Mosquera out. Arteta had to name Piero Hincapie and Christian Norgaard - a midfielder - as his centre-back pairing against Brugge.
The Dowman situation
The Dowman injury stings for different reasons. This is a kid who has been fast-tracked through the academy, a player the club genuinely believes could be special. At 15, he was already registered in the Champions League squad.
Now he has been withdrawn from that squad entirely. Even if he recovers in time for the knockout stages, he cannot play until then because Arsenal have had to give his spot to Gabriel Jesus, who is finally fit after 332 days out with his own ACL nightmare.
Arteta tried to put a brave face on it.
It is part of the journey. At some point when you play at this level, when you play in the position that he plays, when you play the manner that he plays, it was going to happen.
Maybe. But it should not be happening to a 15-year-old in a friendly.
Can they still win the title?
Here is the remarkable thing. Despite all of this chaos, Arsenal are still top of the Premier League. Still unbeaten in the Champions League with five wins from five. Still in pole position for both trophies.
They have won 17 of 22 games this season. They have the best defence in England with just nine goals conceded in 15 league matches. Somehow, some way, Arteta keeps finding solutions.
But the dangerous circle he describes is real. Every injury creates another injury. Every absence puts more strain on whoever is left. And eventually, something has to give.
Man City are just two points behind now. They smell blood. And Arsenal cannot afford to keep patching things together with sellotape and prayers.
The January transfer window cannot come soon enough.
