Though Sousa received a couple of first-team call-ups under Mikel Arteta, including January’s FA Cup match against Liverpool, he never made it onto the pitch for his competitive debut.

Speaking to the media this week, Sousa explained that a desire for first-team football was behind his motivation to leave the club.

“I wanted to get out and play first team football, whether that was at Arsenal or elsewhere,” Sousa revealed.

“I felt as if Villa provided me the right platform and the right plan to go ahead and do that, so that’s why I made that conscious decision to leave.

“When I was signing with Aston Villa there was always the idea of me going out on loan. Where to, it wasn’t quite concrete.

“When I signed for Villa, I signed papers for Argyle as well. Everything happened so quickly. I came down the same day and then I met the manager the next day and was in for training.”

Sousa has since made his Championship debut for Plymouth Argyle, coming on as a substitute against Swansea City and Sunderland before making his first start against Coventry City on Wednesday.

The defender played 61 minutes at wing-back for Plymouth in midweek, with the game ending in a 2-2 draw.

At Arsenal, there is a fair amount of competition for left-back spots. Takehiro Tomiyasu and Alexander Zinchenko seem to be the team’s long-term players, while Jakub Kiwior steps in when they are unavailable.

It appears that Arteta decided to move on after Sousa failed to get him any playing time at Arsenal, despite the left-back injury crises he has encountered at times this season.

It’s difficult to predict if Sousa will have any more success breaking into Aston Villa’s first squad.