It was not, as one might think, Jurrien Timber or Riccardo Calafiori, but instead Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Since then, though, the Ukrainian has played just 10 minutes of football, with a calf injury sustained in September keeping him out of action.
In the time since, Zinchenko has become the forgotten man of this Arsenal squad.
Both Calafiori and Timber have excelled at left-back and, as has been the case in the past with players under Mikel Arteta, it feels like this team is evolving beyond Zinchenko.
Aaron Ramsdale, Granit Xhaka, Kieran Tierney and, to an extent, even Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all suffered the same fate and it is hard to escape the feeling that Zinchenko is heading into a decisive stage of his Arsenal career.
The 27-year-old has less than two years to run on his contract and, if he does not agree fresh terms before the summer, then both he and Arsenal will have a decision to make.
It is perhaps a testament to how far Arsenal have come under Arteta that the prospect of Zinchenko leaving is considered a possibility.
He had a transformative impact on the squad when he joined from Manchester City in 2022, both on the pitch and off it.
Zinchenko brought the winning mentality Arsenal needed and the relentless work ethic that Arteta craves from his players.
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