It may have been a disappointing start to 2022 for Arsenal, but some of their players out on loan continue to go from strength to strength.
With that said, not every loan deal has been a success with Miguel Azeez, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Jonathan Dinzeyi and Nikolaj Moller all returning to north London this month after spending the first half of the season with Portsmouth, Nottingham Forest, Carlisle United and Viktoria Koln respectively.
Meanwhile, Tyreece John-Jules is also back at Arsenal after being recalled from his spell at Blackpool and reports claim he will be heading out again before the January transfer window closes with Sheffield Wednesday said to be closing in on a deal.
So what started out as a 17-man strong loan army when the summer transfer window closed has since decreased to 14 with all the movement this month and in the past week.
It should be noted that Dejan Iliev, who had been on loan at Slovakian side SKF Sered, is no longer an Arsenal player after his contract was terminated by mutual consent a week ago.
Pablo Mari also departed last week, sealing a move to Serie A side Udinese and was an unused substitute in their goalless draw away at Genoa on Saturday afternoon.
The Spaniard's compatriot in Hector Bellerin didn't get any game time over the weekend either as Real Betis cruised to a 4-1 win over Espanyol to remain in the hunt for Champions League qualification.
Over in Belgium Runar Alex Runarsson conceded three times as OH Leuven lost to bottom side Beerschot, but Reiss Nelson fared better in Holland as he played 67 minutes of Feyenoord's 4-1 win away at NEC Nijmegen.
Lucas Torreira has featured for Fiorentina twice in the past week, scoring in a 6-0 thrashing of Genoa last Monday before completing 90 minutes in Sunday's 1-1 draw with Cagliari.
Arguably the biggest winner of the Gunners' loan army from the latest round of fixtures is William Saliba.
As seen from the tweet above, the Frenchman earned rave reviews for some brilliant defending during Marseille's 2-0 win over Lens as he made two stunning tackles in quick succession to secure his 14th clean sheet of the season.
Matteo Guendouzi also featured and he recorded an assist for Cedric Bakambu to seal all three points for the visitors, thus handing Mikel Arteta a timely reminder about what Arsenal are currently missing in midfield.
There was more disappointment for Dinos Mavropanos as Stuttgart were beaten 2-0 by Freiburg, a result that leaves them in the bottom three in the Bundesliga table.
This is somewhat of a concern for the Gunners as the German side have an obligation to buy the central defender for €3million (£2.5m) in the summer, but the option isn't valid if they are relegated.
If Stuttgart do go down, they would only have an option to buy Mavropanos and whilst a permanent transfer is likely it would be for a fee not much more than Arsenal initially paid for him.
After a couple of games at right-back, there was a new role for Ainsley Maitland-Niles on his latest AS Roma appearance.
Instead of playing in his preferred central midfield position, he was asked by Jose Mourinho to fill in at left-back as Tammy Abraham scored a brace in a 4-2 win over Empoli.
Folarin Balogun could make his first Middlesbrough start on Monday night away at Blackburn Rovers.
As well as some first-team players using their loan spells to put themselves in the shop window for potential buyers ahead of the summer transfer window, a number of Arsenal's most promising players have been sent out on loan to gain valuable experience either around Europe or in the lower leagues in England.
Therefore, football.london takes a look at how the remainder of Arsenal's loanees fared over the weekend.
Harry Clarke , who was recalled from his spell at Ross County only to return to Scotland and join Hibernian on loan until the end of next season, missed last Monday's 2-0 loss at Celtic as well as the cup win over Cove Rangers at the weekend.
Daniel Ballard is still on the road to recovery following successful knee surgery last month so missed Millwall's 1-0 defeat at Blackpool and Brooke Norton-Cuffy made his professional debut in Lincoln City's 2-1 win over Plymouth.
Elsewhere in League One, Matt Smith played the entire match as Doncaster Rovers recorded a shock 1-0 win over MK Dons and in the Vanarama National League South, Tom Smith missed out as Welling United lost at home to Oxford City.
