Arsenal are set to face Southampton at the St Mary’s Stadium today, with a near-full squad of options available.
We remain without both Mo Elneny and Emile Smith Rowe, but much of our regular starters since the new season begun are fit and ready, and we will likely name an unchanged XI from the one which defeated Leeds United last weekend.
While there is a slight worry over Bukayo Saka, who was seen to be limping late on in the game with PSV on Thursday evening, he is expected to return in time to face the Saints, while Zinchenko isn’t believed to be ready to make his return just yet.
Predicted Arsenal XI:
Ramsdale
White Saliba Gabriel Tomiyasu
Partey Xhaka
Saka Odegaard Martinelli
Jesus
Ralph Hasenhuttl has some of his own issues to deal with however, with Kyle Walker-Peters, Tino Livramento and Ainsley Maitland-Niles all unavailable, meaning he could well opt to play a player out of his usual position up against Gabriel Martinelli. Romeo Lavia is nearing a return to action however, while Armel Bella-Kotchap is also missing for their side.
Southampton can be a tricky side to come up against, but their woes in the RB role could well be their undoing, and you would think that they would need quite the bit of luck if they were to stop the Arsenal train today.
Patrick
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While the expected first XI remains okay, I have concerns about Gab Jesus and Gab (Defense). Gab Jesus is increasingly becoming a ball hog and experiencing declining goals output. Should be mindful of the vantage position of teammates who could convert assists he could give out to the overall benefit of the team. His last-minute strike tends to get weakish obviously coming from burn-outs.
Yes GoonerP, the team picks itself at present.
I wonder if Tomiyasu will play LB again. I don’t know enough about Soton to tell if that’s as good an idea as it was vs Liverpool (due to Salah’s tendency to cut inside).
Tierney has been “coming back” and playing restricted minutes for quite a long time now – surely he must be ready now?
Also, I’m not seeing a lot of rotation happening with more than a quarter of the PL season played. Some players have even featured in all or most of the EL games as well as the PL ones. Xhaka in particular seems to be doing a bit of a Duracell bunny impression.
Xhaka is invincible. The way he plays, it’s very riskless style. Hence longetivity.
Team picks itself AtM ,no need to change ,players will get a rest 2-4 week rest when WC kicks off ,need to get as many points on the table before then .
Actually it’s 6weeks having just looked at the fixtures
KT in.