Huddersfield Town v Arsenal: Gunners defender banned for Arsene Wenger swansong

The young defender was shown a straight red card in Wednesday’s 3-1 loss at Leicester and will be forced to sit out Sunday’s game in West Yorkshire having started the Gunners’ last three league matches.

Mesut Ozil (back), Mohamed Elneny (ankle), Laurent Koscielny and Santi Cazorla (both Achilles) are also missing but the likes of Alexandre Lacazette and Jack Wilshere could return after sitting out in midweek.

Wenger has revealed that the long farewell to his reign as Arsenal manager has not been a completely enjoyable experience.

The Frenchman will take charge of his final Arsenal game on Sunday, bringing down the curtain on almost 22 years at the helm.

The club announced he would be leaving on April 20 with the Gunners still in the Europa League semi-finals and with five Premier League games remaining.

Since then, the Europa League tie with Atletico Madrid was lost 2-1 on aggregate while the club continue without an away league point in 2018 following defeats at Manchester United and Leicester.

Home victories over West Ham and Burnley, the latter followed by a special on-pitch presentation to Wenger to mark his final match in charge at the Emirates Stadium, have been high points but the outgoing 68-year-old conceded the drawn-out exit has also had negatives.

“I enjoyed some aspects of it, yes - and not all,” he said.

“It was not always easy to cut slowly with what you do every day and always you want to do it as well as you can and you don’t want to forget to thank people who deserve it.

“There are some people here who I employed 20 years ago who did fight for me every single day so it is not easy to say goodbye.”

Wenger has signed his past two Arsenal contracts amid supporter unrest over his continued leadership - but on both occasions the deal has not been agreed until the end of the campaign.

The 68-year-old said he would have liked the same situation to occur this time as he prepares for his final game at the John Smiths’ Stadium.

“Yes, of course,” he replied when asked if part of him wanted to wait until the end of the season.

“Because there was more questioning as well, you do not feel the same adhesion to what you do and when you stay here for such a long period you question yourself ‘is it time now to go or not?’

“We live in a society where people want quick change and that has changed in recent years.”

Provisional squad: Cech, Ospina, Bellerin, Holding, Mustafi, Chambers, Mertesacker, Monreal, Nelson, Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Willock, Wilshere, Ramsey, Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Welbeck, Lacazette, Nketiah, Aubameyang.