The all but official confirmation yesterday that Saliba would certainly miss tomorrow’s game at the Etihad yesterday, sent a wave of Arsenal fans – your humble narrator included – into a wave of ‘formation and play permutation bingo’ and, I’ll be honest, none of it was particularly palatable.

We all know the issues of late; teams have sussed out that they can let Holding have the ball, that his long ball distribution isn’t great, that it forces Arsenal to change the shape and that enables them to be able to get at us defensively. Whether it is Thomas Partey dropping deeper to collect the ball, thereby vacating space further up the pitch he would normally be in, or whether it is the whole team dropping about five to ten yards deeper because of Holding’s positioning, the fact remains that because of poor Bob and the drop down we have from Saliba to him, we are a different side whose weaknesses become even more evident. He may not have been at 100% glaringly obvious fault of any of the recent goals we have conceded in recent weeks, but the ‘Holding’ system that we adopt is the problem and if as fans we recognise that, you can be damn sure that the data analysts and coaches who are looking at Arsenal as their upcoming opponent also know it as well.

So what do we do now? Do we persist with the same line up and hope that we can just cut out the idiotic errors in our games? Agains West Ham it was Partey who was poor for the first goal, then for the second a combination of Tierney and Gabriel who should have known better. On Friday it was a brain fart from Ramsdale for number one, a stupid blind pass from Odegaard and then Gabriel not properly tracking the run of Walcott. Followed by the third in which Holding lost his man for the first header and Saka and Zinchenko weren’t doing their basic defensive duties of watching for the man at the back post.

Could it be as simple as Arsenal playing the same way, with the same players, only avoiding the mistakes? Or is there something more systemic in our play in the ‘Holding System’ that isn’t working (and I am being deliberate in talking about the whole ‘system’ rather than the individual player here, because it is the whole team that hasn’t reacted to the central defensive change)?

I don’t know. But what I do know is that once is a mistake, twice is silly, but three times becomes an issue that goes deeper than simple brain farts. Which is why I am hoping that Arteta and his charges are at London Colney today trying to work out what we can do differently to the last few weeks. We need to see a change and after yesterday’s news about Saliba staying out for the forseeable future, my Twitter timeline was awash with different options that Arteta could/should go with.

Kiwior: Young player, ball-playing centre half, looks the most like the player with the style that Saloiba has, can play those progressive passes and has played a fair bit of football this season, albeit for Spezia and not The Arsenal. It’s an idea and I don’t totally hate it, but were we playing a Leeds United, Bournemouth or Leicester at home, I’d probably be saying we might as well give it a go. But in a game of the magnitude of tomorrow’s match, I think it would be a lot to ask of him.

Partey/Jorginho: Some talk of dropping him in to right back, shifting White in to the centre, then playing Jorginho in the holding role where Partey normally plays. That feels like moving too many parts for me and my preference would be to keep as many pieces in their normal positions as possible. I’m not sure we’ll get Partey offering as much as White going forward in the overlap either, although perhaps there is an argument that both Partey and Zinchenko could be inverted full backs dropping in to midfield. I don’t think that works if both of them go into the middle of the park though, because it vacates wide positions and will leave Mahrez and Grealish with too much space to do whatever the heck they want.

Tierney: This would probably be my preferred option if I’m honest. KT has played centre half for Scotland, albeit in a three (see below) and he is the most experienced in terms of Premier League minutes in defence. But whether he can play right back would be a huge gamble. According to Transfermarkt he’s never played there, although he has played centre half 19 times in his career. 13 of those have been in an Arsenal shirt but the challenge we have is that I’m not sure how he’d fair in at right centre back. Can he do that? I’m not so sure.

Back three: If you went with White, Gabriel and then Kieran Tierney as a back three, I think it gives us the most defensive stability. KT will effectively double up as a left centre half and left back, it will mean he marshals Mahrez, Gabriel takes Haaland and White is detailed on Grealish. It effectively puts the onus on every one of those players winning their duels and that will be a big ask. It also means that we have one less player in out attack, as well as meaning Zinchenko and probably Saka playing as wing backs. My ol’ mate Cookie gave me a sick gif in response to me saying I don’t hate it, but I think this is the least worst of our options. Saka can still get forward, he should still drive at his man, the only difference is he’ll have to be a little more defensively minded and if we’re honest, that is probably going to happen anyway. It means Xhaka and Partey sit in the middle of the park and then we have Odegaard in at 10 and Martinelli and Jesus playing up top.

The only challenge with this, however, is that it isn’t really a system that we’ve adopted all this season and therefore is it worth Arteta throwing a Hail Mary at a time in which everything feels like it is on the line?

I don’t know. But what I do know is that he has to do something different and that something needs to be now. If we put in the same performances as we’ve put in for the last few weeks, City will make mincemeat out of us.

I’ll be back for a match preview tomorrow. I don’t think I’ll be too expectant or optimistic though – just to warn you.

Catch you lovely people tomorrow. Have a good one.