Arsenal vs Southampton: 5 key players to avoiding fiery tailspin

1. Nicolas Pepe

There’s no doubt about it. Nicolas Pepe is a one-man attack, making him the only guy on this attack that can make a similar boast. Against Brighton, we saw him combining with the attack in the early goings, and then, when the team really needed a breakthrough, he just did it all himself. No big deal.

Ideally, we won’t need him to go solo for a goal-o, but there’s a high probability that Southampton sit back and defend. They have nothing to play for, really. There’s no relegation battle, no hope of moving up the table. That usually makes for a match where we need something particularly inspired by someone particularly inspirational.

That’s Nicolas Pepe. Without him, I highly doubt we’d ever have made a breakthrough against Brighton because honestly, it wasn’t even a breakthrough. It was just a moment.

Pepe may be the only attacker with a wave of momentum and confidence going into this match, and that being the case, he is far and away our most important player in this match and likely for more matches going forward.