Arsenal travel to St Marys Stadium today to take on Southampton in the FA Cup in what should be a tight encounter.
The home side overcome Liverpool this week to make it to only their second League Cup final in their history, and will be full of confidence following their impressive win.
On their route to the final, they also eliminated us in the quarter finals, beating us at the Emirates in November, and now have the opportunity to become the first team to knock us out of both cup competitions since the 80s when Manchester United did the same. The Saints can also boast having kept four clean sheets in their last five outings against us, having won three of them.
Arsenal have the advantage of not having played in midweek, as well as the obvious advantage of being the better team, but all that is pointless without bringing their A game. We also look likely to bring Ashley Maitland-Niles into our first-team squad to cover for the absences of Mohamed Elneny (AFCON), Granit Xhaka (suspension) and Santi Cazorla (injured), although Wenger has insisted that Iwobi and Jeff Reine-Adelaide are also possibilities for the central roles as cover.
Other than the above, all our other players are believed to be available for our playing squad this weekend, with Danny Welbeck, Per Mertesacker and Theo Walcott all in line for a place in the squad today.
Predicted Arsenal XI:
Ospina
Bellerin Mustafi Koscielny Gibbs
Coquelin Maitland-Niles
Iwobi Ozil Lucas
Sanchez
The Saints have every reason to be flying high, but with them having had an extra game in midweek, while we have had all the time to prepare properly for the fixture, we simply must have the upper hand.
I’m not saying it will be easy, but I certainly am expecting a win today. I’ll go for a respectable 2-1 win over Southampton, with Lucas Perez getting a goal (should he get the expected game-time).
What are your predictions? Will Alexis return up top today?
Pat J