Arsenal vs Southampton Premier League preview: How to watch, lineups, Arteta pressure & prediction

Next up on the biweekly installment of ‘must-win’ game for Arsenal in the Premier League is a home visit of Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Southampton on Saturday. Here is the match preview.

Preparing for two away games against sides with dreadful records behind them, Arsenal could have moved eight points ahead of Manchester United and then gone two points clear of West Ham if they’d have secured the six points that were there for the taking.

That’s why the last two defeats have been so hard to swallow: because Arsenal have gifted their opponents wins and their own get out of jail free cards.

Any side facing any sort of adversity or dismay need only invite Arsenal over for a game of football to set their own record straight. It’s as if this team is an agony aunt for hire that comes over to shoulder other clubs’ burdens and lift their glum moods.

Arsenal vs Southampton preview: Premier League clash sees Mikel Arteta under huge pressure from supporters after Everton defeat

While the inquest over just how atrocious the performance at Everton was has been rumbling on in the background, there is not a great deal of use crying over this particular spilled milk. Even if it’s the same milk you’ve spilled before and put back into the carton and is now starting to smell funny.

The good thing, which can also be a bad thing, is that the games come thick and fast over December so there is no time to take a mope around the training pitch. Southampton make the journey to the capital for a three o’clock kick-off and home form suggests Arsenal should do well.

As appalling as the side have been on the road, their form at the Emirates is third best in the Premier League this season, ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea. Meanwhile, if judged on away results only, Arsenal would be 11th in the table.

Naturally, the quality of opposition will be mentioned: Chelsea, Norwich, Tottenham, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Watford and Newcastle. The Blues inflicted the only defeat on the Gunners and the other two ‘stronger’ sides in that group sacked their managers shortly after.

Looking at Hasenhuttl’s men, they’ve won only one of their seven games on the road this term and are sorely lacking in goals, even more so than Arsenal. Netting just 14, they’re also winless in their previous four and sit in 16th ahead of the meeting.

Another welcome fixture for Arsenal to bounce back immediately from? You’d like to hope so.

How to Watch on TV

When Is Kick Off? Saturday 11 December
What Time Is Kick Off? 15:00 (GMT)
Where Is it Played? Emirates Stadium
TV Channel/Live Stream? Not on TV (UK) fuboTV (USA)
Referee? Jarred Gillett

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Arsenal Team News vs Southampton – Smith Rowe & Martinelli Injuries

Not only did Arsenal leave Merseyside without a point to show for it, they also left with some additional injury concerns and Gabriel Martinelli was forced off having been seen clutching his thigh.

With no official update from the club (at the time of writing), all there is to work on is the worrying assessment from the manager after the game.

"“I don’t know [how bad the injury is],” Arteta said. “We have to assess him but he felt something in his hamstring, I’m not very positive about it.”"

After earning two starts in successive matches the setback will come as a huge blow to both Martinelli and the team, who will need him over the hectic schedule. Furthermore, he may have been in line for another nod from the off with there still some uncertainty over Emile Smith Rowe’s involvement.

Not in the squad at all at Goodison Park, he was listed as having a tight groin and had been in contention to start. He may still be in line for a spot in the squad. Aside from those two, Granit Xhaka is obviously back fit and Sead Kolasinac remain absent alongside Bernd Leno.

As for the visitors, Oriol Romeu and Mohamed Salisu will both miss out due to suspension, while Stuart Armstrong and Jan Bednarek are struggling with calf problems.

The most interesting aspect of their squad is the absence of both their first team goalkeepers, Fraser Forster and Alex McCarthy, which saw them bring in 40-year-old Willy Caballero on a short-term contract. He is set to make his debut.

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Arsenal Predicted Lineup to Face Southampton – Aubameyang Back in?

Arsenal: Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney; Xhaka, Partey; Saka, Odegaard, Nketiah; Aubameyang

Southampton: Caballero; Livramento, Lyanco, Stephens, Walker-Peters; Redmond, Diallo, Ward-Prowse, Elyounoussi; Adams, Broja

Arsenal vs Southampton Score Prediction

As an Arsenal fan, you can’t allow yourself to get hopeful anymore. On the one hand hope is what we’re banking on, yet on the other side the reason to be hopeful is diminished when performances like the one against Everton are even possible considering how dire the Toffees are.

You try not to let yourself get carried away. So, hosting a Southampton side with one away win all season and who play a brand of football suited to how Arsenal want to play their own style should be welcome.

The home form has been strong and this is a welcome opportunity to extend that and bring back the winning feeling. With the Saints missing their best central defender, their long-serving partner to James Ward-Prowse and having a 40-year-old in goal making his club debut is about as open of an invitation as you could ask for.

But Arsenal are shot for confidence. There are mixed messages from Arteta with his selections and substitutions, while the approach and football being played seems to change with very passing week. Whatever formula seems to be working alters by bringing in either Elneny or Xhaka into the frame, and then it feels like back to square one.

Despite his struggles it’s hard to see Partey taken out of the team, and until rotation is paramount the partnership of him and Xhaka looks set to stay. There has to be marked improvement then, as it lacked any bite or progression last time out.

Will the Gunners click on Saturday? The fear is that mentally this team is so fragile that a jittery opening could knock their confidence right from the off.

Score Prediction: Arsenal 1-1 Southampton