Journalist Charles Watts has claimed that "something's going on" between Arsenal midfielder Emile Smith Rowe and manager Mikel Arteta.

What's the latest on Arsenal and Emile Smith Rowe?

In their latest Premier League outing, the Gunners were without key midfielder Granit Xhaka who pulled out shortly before the game with an illness.

In his place, Fabio Vieira came in as Arsenal dropped vital points in a 3-3 draw at Southampton. All the while, even when desperately chasing a winner, Smith Rowe was left on the bench.

This might seem quite odd seeing as the £40k-p/w midfielder netted 11 goals in all competitions as he proved himself vital to Arteta last season, making 37 appearances in all competitions.

However, it seems as though the Spaniard has lost some faith in the Englishman – who has also missed a large chunk of games due to injury.

While talking about the player on his YouTube channel, Watts seemed to suggest that there must be a reason behind the scenes which explains why Smith Rowe isn't playing.

The journalist said: "He could have played Smith Rowe [against Southampton]. Obviously, something's going on with Smith Rowe at the moment.

"Arteta just doesn't want to use him, for whatever reason – we don't know what that is. Clearly [in] training, I don't know, but he's just not doing enough to impress.

"It's frustrating because we know what Smith Rowe can do and I think that number eight role is perfectly suited to him. We saw it last season at times.”

Will Arsenal sell Smith Rowe?

When you look at WhoScored, you can see that Smith Rowe has failed to impress this term with an average rating of just 6.22 in the league.

However, he'd played only 116 minutes, so it's not as though he's had a fair chance to prove his value. In his place, just as it was against Southampton, Vieira has been handed more game time but his average rating of 6.32 hardly suggests he's a massive upgrade.

With that being the case, it certainly is easy to jump to the conclusion that Arteta must not be happy with what Smith Rowe is doing behind the scenes, perhaps in training, as Watts suggests.

What's more, seeing as the Gunners are currently being linked with Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount (via Goal), the Spanish manager may already be looking for alternative options to add to his midfield in the summer.

None of this seems to bode too well for the 22-year-old Arsenal man.