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Official Arsenal team to face Southampton – Pepe is back

This is a massive game for Mikel Arteta because another loss and the pressure may become unbearable despite what the likes of Edu may have to say.

Arsenal faces an in-form Southampton side who could, in theory, go joint top this evening and so the stakes could not be any higher for both teams.

Arteta must get his team selection absolutely right this evening, he has to get the tactics and strategy right and his team has to deliver for him, anything less is unthinkable right now.

Anyway, this is the team.

What do you think of the team that Mikel Arteta has gone with against the Saints this evening?

Has Arteta has got it right this time or has he got it wrong again?

Leave us your comments below and maybe predict the score at the same time.

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

JustArsenal predicted Arsenal team (for comparison) here
JustArsenal match preview here

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391 Comments

          1. Have been so patient with Pepe.
            Finally given up on the guy.
            Huge waste of 72 million.
            So excited when we signed him.
            We have to offload him.

  8. Great goal 👏👏…..Saka as usual only one who keep standing tall in attack. Come one Auba lot of gaols to score to win that golden boot.

  9. Saved the gaffer’s job? Nah, made it such that conceding to us is only better than conceding to Sheffield United 😉

  11. Sue your Walcott prediction! 😂😂😂 Seen the score and couldn’t stop laughing remembering your comment.

    All is not lost yet!

  12. Tonight I’ve thought come on wear your old faithful maroon top with the collar the highbury anniversary one.
    I rubbed the badge and said come on whilst looking upwards then looked down and they scored!!
    Superstitious anyone?

  13. YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

    FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!

    ALL IS NOT LOST YEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!

    🦸🦸🦸🦸🦸🦸🦸🦸
    🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺

  15. The maturity this kid Saka has when to pass when to run with ball amazing. I think he is not only a big talent/gem for us but England as well. They need to play him more in the team to combine with Sancho, Rashford and co.

        1. I know auba finally breaks his slump and the boom… all optimism snuffed out in a couple of mins 😭😭

  25. Magalhaes was definitely out of form since the start of the game. He couldn’t handle Che Adams, and now Walcott

  29. I said before this will happen…it’s just the situation…in this situation some times it’s fustration that gets the better of you or sometimes it’s just that eagerness and fear where you don’t want to be reason of loss as if it’s your mistake. I won’t blame players too much for that, just some bad luck for Arteta I have sympathy for him when it comes to this.

  33. Deja vu innit, the last Gabriel we signed Also, I repeat Also, saw his arsenal career slide after seeing red in a match. Walcott doing a Diego Costa 😉

  34. I can’t watch this anymore. Sick of watching the same dross every game. Three red cards in three games is shocking discipline and we’ve managed one goal in open play in thirteen hours, big woop.

  35. This has to be an effing joke!! Are they getting sent off on purpose? What the heck is going on with this team!!

    Sick of it!

  36. It’s not like it’s never happened before 10men can win it sometimes going down gives you more purpose and drive…hopefully it does to our team. We can win this boysss…

  39. @GOT AN IDEA.
    I think there is!
    When you look at our red cards compare pepe to Fred’s and xhaka to chilwell you got to wonder why we get harsher punishments atm

        1. exactly. Espescially Xhaka and Pepe’s. It’s always been reds to headbutt somebody. And how wrapping your hand around someones neck is up for debate… somebody would need to tell me.

    2. It’s funny, we got done on the counter by a top team & apparently we can’t do the same to them. If that really is the case then off to the championship we go

  46. so can everyone finally be quiet about Pepe, lmao. He’s always awful. I dont konw why ppl thought he’d be much better than Willian.

  47. Nah man, bring Laca on. We can nick a win. Draw won’t do any good to us unless it’s to safe Arteta job for one more match.

      1. Agree SueP, but sometimes these are the situations where you need to stand up and be brave. Higher risk higher the reward. Also I think Laca not also gives you an offensive threat but also he is good at chasing down and holding ball which is essential when you are down to 10.

  52. It’s clear to me that these bunch of mercenaries posing as players are playing to get Arteta the sack.

    Before Aubameyang’s equalizer, I was convinced by his performance that he wants the manager out as shown by his listless performance and lack of application. After his equalizer, I was asking myself how the players are planning to lose the game. As counterintuitive this might be, that is the bitter truth right now – there is mutiny right now within the squad. FACT!!!

    Aside Saka, Tierney and maybe Leno, I don’t see any of the other players in today’s starting lineup as a long-term player. Gabriel’s red card has put a smear on his credibility in my opinion. Let’s hope the red card was not premeditated.

    I know many of you will come for my head for saying this, but club needs to go to relegation. After then, can we begin afresh again. Due to loss of revenue, the club will be forced to cut ties with most of the first squad players and the ownership of the club might change.

    Regarding the manager, I don’t see him as the problem. No big manager can work wonders with these bunch of misfits and greedy players. If Arteta is sacked, we should be ready to become a club that sacks managers every year.

    Until we complete the massive overhaul of this useless bunch of mercenaries, no manager can turn the tide. They have started the same shenanigans they pulled on Emery on Arteta. FF sake, what can a manager do when the players are uncoachable and don’t wanna apply themselves to assimilate the style of play of the manager.

    These players need to be investigated for selling out these games. Gabriel showed today he is part of the problem. He played as if he wanted the red card to halt the ascendancy we were experiencing after the equalizer. How can you blame the manager for the red card FF sake.

    Watching these players is such a pain in the arse. All I see are unmotivated millionaires players relentlessly frustrating the effort of the manager surreptitiously. It takes a lot of awareness and understanding of the game to see that these players through their body language and lack of application are doing everything possible to undermine Arteta and make him look stupid.

    I expect many more losses and red cards from this squad to further rub salt to injury by these bunch of misfits we call professionals. I maintain again that giving Arteta the sack will get us no where. Of course, sacking him would magically result in an ‘upturn’ in their form to avoid relegation, but if that happens, we should expect the new manager to get the sack midway next season.

    This club needs a massive overhaul from top to bottom. And this will require the patience of the fans. We need to get behind the manager for the sake of the club. It’s just unsustainable employing a new manager every season.

    3. Arsenal are also at fault for recruiting highly marketable players from abroad. They should’ve followed Liverpool’s recruitment policy, but I guess selling jersey and pay-per-views are more important for Arsenal

      Rather than losing hundreds of millions by replacing many big stars, Arsenal will easily lift up the divas’ motivation by replacing Arteta with an older manager

      That would be a pity, because Arteta is a smart manager

          1. We are talking about Arsenal. a team that played in a champions league final. a team that had Hleb, Nasri, Fabregas, Van Persie. We have seen better days. let us not kid ourselves. we are not making progress as a football club

        3. Hi Declan. Things are not looking good at the club honestly. we finished second in the league the season Leicester won the league. we were playing champions league football continuously for many years, And now, we cant beat Burnley, Leicester, wolves, aston villa and Southampton at home. we dont even have a player like carzola who could dribble through the middle. Things are getting worse by the day.

  56. It’s not the result I’d hoped for but a draw is infinitely better than a loss

    I think we missed Luiz. He is an older version of Tierney in the sense of taking responsibility and showing leadership.

    A proper goal and a post at the end. I feel a sense of relief.

    A defeat would have been totally catastrophic

    1. Hahaha…I still think he should be sacked. When you make a team like South Hampton such a big job at home not to mention what they did with us first 30minites then I don’t see how he is going to take us to previous hieghts.

  60. We definitely need a quality Midfield creator to play along Partey and Saka. We lack quality in middle big time specially when Partey is not there. One quality quality proper creative CM is needed not only now but future as well.

  61. Shocking performance by a bunch of lazy players. Auba apart from the goal is shit. With what I see Arteta cannot keep us afloat. We will be relegated.
    It takes more than good talks, nice press conferences, nice looks suits to succeed in the game of football… In any field of life when a manager cannot motivate his players he has to go.

  63. They hung in there. We will turn the corner. That will give them some inspiration. These games will start taking their toll. Guys worked their socks off.

  64. Sorry but this was South Hampton, last time it was Burnley and before that Lescester at home…not good enough. The teams we should be rolling over at home we are either loosing or merely surviving. I still think an active big club of Europe would have fired the manager by now or if not before then today for sure. Even a small club like west Brom fired Bilic even though they drew against City.

  65. 2 things I’ve not seen from Arsenal in a while – a goal and a point!!! 😄
    So happy for Auba… Saka is superb
    Really disappointed with Gabriel… had been brilliant all season and then tonight he just had to channel his inner Xhaka 😡

    1. He struggled all the game, i dont think he deserve both cards though.
      oh Saka how MA like to reduce this boy to defensive play,. i was asking about him all through first have because i was sure if he could proprely join attack, we would get the better of them, MA is been too cautious that why we are where we are.
      those that complained about putting in too much across, can breath happy

  66. Saka came of age today. If Pepe was worth 70 million then what is this kid going to fetch. I felt sorry for Cebeillos. He comes from Real Madrid where he is used to visionary midfielders who usually know where the ball is going to be two steps ahead and here is at Arsenal with only cult hero Eleny to work with. Arteta would have been smarter to take Auba off keep Cebeillos on to hold the ball. At least the manager got away with it this time. We also had it confirmed as to why AMN can’t hold a spot in the team. His passing is terrible. Ideally he should be a certainty to be selected ahead of Eleny but at least the Egyptian’s sideways passing didn’t go to the opposition even if it is impotent.

    2. i have asked severally why people think AMN is best at middle while AW, UE, FL, now MA and even england coach feel otherwise, all his life he has played less than 10 games in the middle yet lots of persons here think he is better than our current mildfielders

      1. So what about Auba. Wasn’t he a waste of space?Oh that’s right,he scored his second goal of the season, didn’t he?

  67. i think the players needs to learn man mark. they seems to loose their man most time creating acres of space, there is no comunication everyone just following direction of play, MA needs to see something about it.
    Auba really did well today making lots of runs.

    play safe is another problemm at arsenal now, everyone trying not to lose ball or commit error, thereby doing simple pass with no purpose until Saka decided to throw caution to the wind, even pepe was silent all through because AMN refused to attack, and oh AMN, putting a lot of effort in recovering possession only to throw it away almost immediately and at a dangerous position.

    overall a draw isn’t bad but we need to put in a lot of efforts from the start football isn’t judge on 2nd half alone, i doubt arsenal has scored in first half all season in epl

  68. truth be told, 14 points from 13 games is bad for a club as big as arsenal. This draw is like a loss imo.

    Some are saying we played well. We deserve better than this. Honestly, we are declining. there are still more gams to play for. But something is fundamentally wrong.

    1. If we’d let the lead slip, I’d probably be feeling differently, Skills. You’re right though, 14 points is poor, really poor.. have to see how we follow this up against Everton….

      1. Sue, yes. I agree with you. but when i look at the table. we are 15th place. the target this season was a top4 finish. these players have to look themselves in the face and show more commitment. Arteta also deserves some criticism. What does it take for Smith Rowe to start a league game?
        Spurs and Liverpool are both on 25 points. if a win comes from that, that means we would be 14 points behind the leaders. There is a fundamental problem with our beloved club. Honestly. Arteta should have played smith rowe today. Martinelli is fit again. he should have been on the bench. Maybe i am over reacting.

        1. No, you’re not overreacting, Skills. We should at least be in the top half of the table!!
          This season has been awful, you don’t have to remind me of all those losses, records smashed etc…oh Arteta receives criticism and rightly so… don’t get me wrong, Skills, just because we picked up a point doesn’t mean all is hunky dory..have to see where we go from here now.. could it be a turning point? Maybe….
          Have to go easy on Gabs, don’t want him having a set back, like Partey.
          Try not to let it bother you too much, Skills.. I would say things will pick up, but I’m not sure about that just yet…

        2. we got redcarded around 60min, Martinelli wouldnt have made the team still, MA had plan of bringing either lacca or willian in before the redcard. just like i support MA decision to leave Saliba out of the squared i also support his decision to keep the young guys away from the squard for now until things get settled, this team is undergoing a face and the big boys are used to criticism, bringing in young guys is throwing them under the bus, it might turn worst and destroy them,

          Arsenal fans knows how to raise expectation on players and as well quick to destroy same players when ‘their expectations
          ‘ are not fulfilled

          1. I have only just picked up on your post and I think you are absolutely right. We all scream and shout for the youngsters, but shoving them en masse for tonight would have been a disaster. Bit by bit

  69. Gabrielle’s red card was a case of dumb and dumber, but he is the type of player who will learn from . Not having midfielders who can boss and control the ball is putting too much pressure on the central defence who I still believe are doing a good job. The pair of Gabrielle and Holding should be kept together. Holding will always have a game where his lack of speed will be a liability but he is still young enough to improve in terms of positioning and becoming game wise. Tony Roberts rates him. I think he knows more about the craft than most of the commentators above.

    1. Joe, that partnership will be seen for a long time at arsenal except Saliba come back good next season.

      just see Mo positioning in the Soton goal buid up, so awful.
      i always know we struggle physically in the absence of Xhaka, am not exempting him from blame but he isnt worst than Mo or ceballos or any other players we have for same position except maybe Partey

  70. Just saw Auba’s post match interview – however good he is as a player, he’s not a leader or going to inspire the team when things aren’t going well. He admitted he just goes into his shell – we need to change the captain, let him focus on scoring and someone else drive & lead the team with a bit of emotion (KT)

    1. I was just about to write something similar
      It is no shame that he hasn’t those qualities but give the job to Luiz or Tierney

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