“Why, Arsenal, did you not sign James Maddison? He was available for a very reasonable fee and you chose to sign Kai Havertz instead.”

These words, or similar ones to its effect, have surely been spoken, read or written by many of you or at least someone else you know since the season got under way. Maddison has utterly outclassed Havertz in goalscoring, assists and chance creation and is a major reason why Spurs were leading the league for so long.

Arsenal paid more than £20million more for the German international despite Maddison being available and courted by a side in Spurs without any European football whatsoever. As the season has progressed, having patience for Havertz to settle in and raise his confidence after some difficult years in west London has called on the strength of many of us and for some it has already broken.

Whilst I have thought giving up on Havertz now is far too much of an exaggeration of the situation - especially when he has shown some really positive signs in recent weeks – I empathise with those who have concerns because I have them too. Why sign a project player for a team on the up and with momentum when a ready-made, ready-to-go option was there for even less money?

A fair question. However, perhaps one of the answers is beginning to emerge. Maddison came off injured in the chaotic defeat to Chelsea and Tottenham have now confirmed that he will be unable to join up with Gareth Southgate’s squad for the last international break of the year.

There are fears that the issue could be worse than first feared. Maddison would join an increasingly worrying list of players currently sidelined from Ange Postecoglou’s side leaving their title hopes in ruin.

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In Maddison’s five seasons at Leicester, he suffered from 14 separate injuries and knocks which kept him out of action for club and country. These injuries amounted to a total of 238 days in the treatment room and 41 matches missed, more than an entire league campaign.

Meanwhile, Havertz in his three seasons at Chelsea missed just six games through injury and just nine games at Bayer Leverkusen in three seasons - 26 fewer games than Maddison with an extra year of action too.

Havertz has shown that his availability has been an ability in itself which, in a club like Arsenal, can be invaluable. Maddison may be a long way ahead in the scoring and assists charts at the moment but should Havertz find his feet and some form that gap might begin to close rather quickly.

With Thomas Partey, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus all suffering from injury issues, the opportunity remains open for the 24-year-old to continue getting valuable game time. The race is very much on.