Meanwhile, Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker has admitted that Arsenal currently lack both a “killer instinct” and composure in front of goal as he again claimed that the team’s problems are largely a symptom of attacking failures.

Arsenal had more than 70 per cent of possession against Watford and, having also highlighted the missed chances following the 2-0 defeat against Barcelona, Mertesacker offered a similar assessment.

“What we do lack at the moment is we need to score at some point,” he said. “It looks like we play, and play and play until the opposing team scores. That is something we need to work on. We had the opportunities and the possibilities when they were 2-0 up to come back. We kept going and created chance after chance, but at the moment we lack that killer instinct. We need to work on that if we want to be successful in the Premier League and the Champions League.”