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Official Arsenal team to face Southampton – Ozil and Tierney start

Great opportunity for Arsenal to get back to winning ways today.

It is a sad indictment or Arsenal that some fans, judging by the comments on here, are nervous at playing a team like Southampton.

That is nothing against the Saints but we are talking about a team in the relegation zone. A team that recently conceded nine goals in a single match.

It is not going to take a rocket scientist to know what is required today. Players playing in the right position, the correct formation and an attack-minded approach.

It is imperative that the team line up reflects those basic conditions. Well, this is the team that Emery has gone with. I will leave it up to each of you to draw your own conclusions.

The feedback in the comments will be very interesting.

The game kicks off at 15.00 UK time. Match Preview here and for comparison, our predicted lineup.

Links to streams will be put in the comments where to watch the game live and free so keep checking in.

Also, if you go to the official Arsenal website you will be able to get live commentary text and Arsenal radio.

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141 Comments

      1. This is really sad, I was really looking forward to the game, on seeing the formation I realize arsenal is really in deep shit to be scared of Southampton five defenders really

    3. Its humiliating to the fans by the board of this club they are responsible please stay away now all remaing season

  3. 3 at the back for a home game against Southampton brilliant!! Bloody negative straight from the start!! If u take sokratis out and play pepe that is probably our strongest 1st 11

    1. How on earth is taking Sokratis out our strongest 11.

      Chambers has cost us more goals than any other player even before the classic Chambers-lack-of-attention one today. Are you not watching games?????

  4. No wing play. No Pepe. I don’t understand Emery really. Peps would have worked so better with Ozil. Again we’ll not dictate the game but rather defend most of the match.

      1. He is allergic of Ozil. He knows Pepe and Ozil can work wonders down the right flank. That’s why he picks Ozil in a formation without any width. Dropping Pepe started happening since he came under immense pressure to play Ozil. This might sound outlandish conspiracy, but look back to how and the timing of when Pepe was decided to be dropped. Otherwise I see no reason to go so defensive today, we could have played traditional 4-2-3-1 today.

        1. Hi baby, I have missed you. I hope everyone is doing well. Well sweetheart Pat beat me to hiring first and he feels really great today. I thought we will be first to hire a better manager. Am not very hopeful today, but I still wish us well.

  6. I was hoping for a high scoring encounter but seeing this negative lineup with 3 CBshas made me reduce expectations. This game

  7. Nothing to complain about the line up. It remains to be seen what tactical approach he will adopt. Will he stick to playing out from the back, allow them to dominate the midfield and not press from the front?
    We shall see.

  8. And then we wonder why the goals aren’t coming and why aren’t we creating enough chances. This is a line up not meant for attack and scoring goals, this is as defensive as a nuclear fallout bunker. Sigh.

  9. The only way that we are going to win is if we take the lead after 80 mins because arsenal are not good at defending leads for long periods these days

  10. Guendouzi and Torreira are overhyped midfielders. I don’t care whether Emery is also at fault for the current situation but one thing I’ll say is by the time we start winning major trophies those two won’t be starters

    1. You are damn right about Guendozie. He is not and never should be a starter for Arsenal at this stage. He is just too overhyped every mid field partnership with him has always struggled to contain the opponent. Partner Torriera with someone better and you’ll see what happens.

  12. Im no coach but is it really so hard to pick a good lineup. We are at home to a the 19th placed team and have selected the same amount of CBs as attacking players. MOURINHO went away from home and picked a more attacking lineup than this. They give the fans nothing to cheer about but then blame us for turning on the team. Win lose or draw #emeryout

  13. It’s a matter of time before this clown goes … sadly by which time the season will be over … club has been haemoraging ambition ever since the management hoodwinked fans in to believing new stadium would lead to new footballing chapter kept the Frenchman on well past his sell by date and made 4th pls the measure of success

    1. Its a pity how u guys turn every of Emery’s failings to defame Wenger,its just a pity we have very terrible and ungrateful fans like u, arsenal under Wenger finished 4th in 2014,3rd in 2015 abd 2nd in 2016,donno how any one that has passed his sale date could be finishing that strong,even in 2017 when he has to battle the uncertainties of Sanchez and ozil contract issues which to an extent affected the dressing room, the heavy unrest from toxic fans like u who thought that finishing 2nd behind Leicester was a massive failure,thereby making the emirates stadium toxic for both players and the coach, yet we finished just a point behind Liverpool in 5th with an fa cup trophy,the hypocricy in u will not allow u to tell us that Brendan Rodgers met a cris ridden Leicester battling relegation in February yet look @ what he had turned them into just after few months,some of u guys should just go and hide ur faces in shame and stop looking for escape route!

  14. Admin, by stating that we should not be scared of a relegation zone team, you are forgetting what Watford did to us.

  15. We should have enough to win, but our midfield is so weak I won’t be putting any money on it. Hopefully Auba will have a great game and we can get the 3 points.

  16. I’d prefer the more attacking 4-2-3-1, because the players are not accustomed to 4-3-3 yet. But our defense is so bad, hence Emery wants to play cautiously with 3-4-1-2

    It can be an attacking formation as well, as long as the two wide CBs move forward frequently to help the offense. This is supposed to be an easy home game for Ozil

    2. Poor formation once again. Tierney looks nothing like a LWB but a LB. Ozil is also worse when played in this formation because his options at the wings are limited. The midfield duo isn’t good enough at linking defence to attack

      1. Tierney’s attacking ability is excellent, so I’m sure he would do great in this match

        Arsenal have limited option in no 10 position, but I wish Emery started Martinelli instead

  23. OK, one of those streams must work for you, remember those bloody ads, be careful as always with these live streams

    1. Martin, GHD Sports app works very well, so you may want to check it and post the link for others to watch, if it’s ok

  24. Even if we win, it’s going to be more dull as toast football. Not once have we looked exciting in the league. Being bored for 90 minutes, regardless of the result, isn’t something I will ever look forward to.

  25. The formation on its own doesn’t make the starting XI defensive. Let’s reserve judgement until we see Emery’s tactics this game.

    I’d rather see an extra forward and two CBs but am excited to finally see Bellerin and Tierney on the same pitch. If the tactics are right, they’ll give us the width.

  26. The emergence of Southampton., to ‘put pressure on’ 😉

    Would you Emery n eve it, our “4th place is a trophy” has gone

  28. I think this is better than most people thought

    I’m upset no Pepe
    This could have given him the p
    Opportunity to score

    I’m okay with Ozil because he may actually perform well against a poor team

    Happy he chose Torreira and Guendouzi

    Not sure about 5 defenders though.

    Anyway COYG

    1. Sue I really think we will not survive under emery, things have gone from bad to worse. I don’t think he is cutting through the players at all

  32. This formation has 8 defensive players, no one to do transition to Ozil to feed attack. All team looks crazy again as Emery lost his mind for real. EPL pressure and Wenger suit not so easy to wear! I’m not surprise, we down 0-1 after 15 minutes!

  36. Ohh Emery Ohh Emery continually spanked by small boys,time after time

    average teams & a Cup run, you tell us that’s fine

  41. shocking football … no shape no stamina … the sooner bellerin is sold the better but with exception of tierney the entire defence is below average … but attack isnt much better either … 18 months in to his tenure its obvious to anyone that the man is way out of his depth … emery has to go asap if this season is to be salvaged …

  42. Why does Arsenal defense like to sleep? This has been happening since Wenger’s time

    How come Bould can’t teach the defenders properly? Have Arsenal sacked him already?

  44. This was to be expected really. Only hope today was individual brilliance or freak luck going Arsenal’s way. Let’s hope we get lucky in the next half. Let’s hope we don’t lose this one.

  46. another game where we make our opponents look better than they are, and concede tons of shots. Lets remember this lineup has 5 defenders and two deep lying midfielders.

  47. What exactly did Arsenal accomplish
    over the International break?

    Regardless of the result Emery has
    ALREADY lost the Emirates and must
    be given his walking papers.

    This season is LOST, might as well
    give Freddy or Arteta a chance to
    start the rebuild IMMEDIATELY.

    Luis
    Socratis
    Bellerin
    Torreria
    El Neny
    Miki
    Xhaka

    should all be moved on in the next
    2 windows, NONE are good enough to
    play for the badge

  48. What can we do with all these pigmob puppets trying very hard to mess up an already messed up Arsenal team?
    Why this crazy referee keeps pulling Arsenal back from taking quick free kicks – the very thing Southampton used to score their goal – is what I do not understand.
    I am not telling anybody to mob these stooges, but that’s honestly what they deserve.

  50. At present I’m more interested in Arsenal winning this game than Emery getting sacked. I’m desperate for a decent win but watching this I’d be happy if they scored for us and we scrape through.

  51. I am beginning to get angry with pepe. Price tag isnt the issue here cos he wasn’t the one that ask the club to pay that much. But he should put that in

  55. Arsenal players pass from side-to-side, up to the midfield, back to defense, to the keeper, back to the defense, side-to-side and so on and so on. There’s some logic to this approach ?Arsenal does it poorly and it leads to boring soccer,The combination of an inability to create shots and an inability to stop shots has led to some dreadful, disastrous performances this season, and there’s no reason to expect it will change. The only question now is how many more boring Arsenal matches they’ll have to sit through before Emery finally gets the sack.

    1. @GB,
      VAR is not an enemy in this game. We have overrated players. We also overrate our team – Arsenal.

  59. The word Win is not in the dictionary of this club. At all. And probably won’t be regardless of who’s in charge.

  65. Look at our 2 holding midfielders walking back my goodness get rid of them and the manager please plus Socrates.

  67. Wheres the people who said we should beat Southampton because they’re strugglers. Dont think they realised no team is afraid of us plus we make it so easy for others to beat us. Emery needs to go I dont know what the boards waiting for. He will cost us more than 6mil if he stays

  68. I’ve had enough! I’m so glad I didn’t go today… we’re losing to 18th in the league…. Emery had better be sacked tonight! 🤬🤬🤬

  69. Each time I read something like: ” these are winnable games for Arsenal “, I regret or painfully watch those matches

  71. On the counter attack leading to the
    goal, Torreria, Guendouzi and others
    were simply JOGGING back.

    Embarrasing but predictable with this
    coach and lot of UNDERACHIEVERS.

  72. It’s embarrassing. I am hoping we can come back and win,but there is also a part of me believes that a bad result here and Emery is no longer.

  77. 17 shots for soton, 19th in the bloody league this is disgraceful, that’s like 50-60 shots against us in like 3 games 🤬

  79. I’m not watching but in peoples honest opinion are we doing a chelsea to Mourinho and Leicester to Ranheri?
    Are we not bothering in an effort to get our manager sacked? Never believed it would happen but sounds like it with Guendouzi and torreira jogging around.

  82. Emerys playing dreadful soccer and a dreadful result have followed. There’s a lack of both style and substance.he lost the trust of the supporters and he has to go NOW!!!!

  89. Ffs laca might just have saved his job, again papering over the gaping cracks, what the hell is going on?

  90. Has the last kick of the game just saved enery his job?
    Please board look at the performance and cohesion or lack of not the result.
    Scraping a draw at home to saints has got to bit time for a change!

  91. @hez
    Worst manager full stop!
    Did our board not watch barca claw back a victory against his psg that were leading 6-1 from the first leg?
    He watched on nervous and confused with no answer.
    Not the best advertisement for a new club to come calling but yes that’s what we did!

  92. Why do we have that many stooges managing us, if no one is sacking nobody?
    Even good incoming players are losing confidence!

  93. I’m glad we at least got a point as I never want to lose whatever the circumstances but Emery has be sacked today, now, right now!

  94. Today is away teams’ day. Arsenal refused to cave in. Let’s see if ManCity will break the jinx, otherwise so sad Sue.

  96. Boy we got lucky, instead to be 9th we are 7th! This subs we’re historical as starting team. No more defense for attack, aie aie aie! 3 unreal clear chances they missed, a clear 5-1 and we saved day with a draw! Shows how deep we are! Behind last team in league! It’s find tho,we steal in EL! Kroenke’s target! By the time we out of Europa, w we’ll be in relegation zone.

    Technically we should be 9th place today, man U wiin putting us 10th! Where we suppose to be when other team do not mess up!

  99. Now we will finally find out whether or not the decision makers above Emery have any ambition OR if they have none at all. Emerys sacking OR lack of it by this Monday will answer that question once and for all. IT IS VIRTUALLY UNANIMOUS THAT WE ALL WE FANS WANT IT ,AS WE ALL KNOW. If only we fans could make the necessary decision to sack him…..! If he had any honour he would resign tonight!

    2. Jon-I can give you 6,000,000 reasons why Emery will not jump.If he’s pushed his contract is paid out in full.
      This is not the time for the Board to be penny pinching and upset at the Manager being out of work for Xmas.At the rate we are falling we will be out of the Premiere League by the years end.
      We have all seen what’s happening.We hope to F*** the Board see it too.Just sack him NOW.Freddie will at least give us back the DNA we lost in Wengers latter years and the 15 months this clown has been in charge.
      FFS-Show some balls and sack him TONIGHT.

  100. So judging how long it took to get rid of Wenger I reckon Emery has about three years to turn it around.

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