On paper, Arsenal should have a very easy outing at Southampton today if you look at the League table and our recent form, but the Gunners boss Mikel Arteta cannot forget the “painful” defeat on our last visit to St Marys. Arteta told the Echo: “Well, obviously there was an experience that was painful, especially with the way the game turned out and the consequences of it.
“We know where the danger is with their team.”
“We have experienced some really tough matches against them and I expect a difficult game again.”
In fact, with Arteta at the helm we have only won three of our six games against Southampton, and have lost two, so we could consider the South Coast side as a bit of a bogey team. It doesn’t help that we had a very tough game against PSV just this Thursday, and Arteta will surely need to rotate his starting XI to cope with extra tiredness and fatigue setting in.
We clearly saw how much our Thursday game affected our visit to Leeds last week, so Arteta has every right to be felling a little worried today. Arteta said: “Well, it’s difficult as we have a day to prepare for the game.
“We have watched certain games, but we haven’t finalised all of the preparation.
“Against us they have played in various ways. We know what we can expect from them, but we don’t have certainty over how they will start the game.”
So, as Arteta implies, we should not be getting complacent and think we just have to turn up to claim the points. Let us hope that whoever Arteta chooses will be ready to fight right to the end…
COYG!!!
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