This weeks View From The Enemy comes direct from the Official Southampton FC Website, where they give you all the facts and figures and Tells us which Southampton player is Arsenal’s biggest danger tomorrow….
Match Preview: Saints vs Arsenal
Check out our match preview as Southampton look to make it successive home wins in the Premier League when they meet Arsenal at St Mary’s.
THE MATCH
Southampton vs Arsenal
Sunday 10th December, 12.00pm GMT
St Mary’s
Premier League
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
Saints are searching for back-to-back home victories when Arsenal visit on Sunday, after their 4-1 success against Everton last time out at St Mary’s.
It was a 1-1 away draw at AFC Bournemouth last time out, where Charlie Austin fired his third goal in as many games.
They come up against a side hoping to record successive league wins at Southampton for the first time since August 1997. Arsene Wenger’s men lost 3-1 to Manchester United at home in their last Premier League clash, before beating BATE Borisov 6-0 in the Europa League.
TEAM NEWS
Southampton: Cédric is the only absentee for Southampton as he continues to recover from a hamstring problem, while Shane Long is back in contention after a calf injury. Another positive is the return of Josh Sims to first-team training after seven months out.
Arsenal: Shkodran Mustafi will be unavailable for Sunday’s clash at St Mary’s as he continues to recover from a thigh problem, while Theo Walcott could return after a problem with his calf.
FORM GUIDE
Southampton’s previous five:
AFC Bournemouth (a) 1-1
Manchester City (a) L 2-1
Everton (h) W 4-1
Liverpool (a) L 3-0
Burnley (h) L 1-0
Arsenal’s previous five:
BATE Borisov (h) W 6-0 (Europa League)
Manchester United (h) L 1-3
Huddersfield Town (h) W 5-0
Burnley (a) W 1-0
1.FC Köln (a) L 1-0 (Europa League)
TOP PERFORMERS
a man in form for Southampton, with a goal against AFC Bournemouth taking his goal tally to seven goals in his last 10 Premier League starts.
During his time at QPR, he scored in both of his two Premier League appearances against the Gunners and will be looking to continue his rich vein of form.
Top scorers: Charlie Austin (4), Steven Davis (3), Manolo Gabbiadini (3), Dušan Tadić (2)
Most assists: Nathan Redmond (3), Ryan Bertrand (2)
ARSENAL
Alexandre Lacazette has settled into English football well, with eight goals in his first 15 Premier League appearances. Only two players have ever scored more in that many games and his pace could prove a threat.
Top scorers: Alexandre Lacazette (10), Olivier Giroud (8), Theo Walcott (6)
Most assists: Aaron Ramsey (7), Sead Kolasinac (5), Mesut Özil (5)
PREVIOUS MEETINGS
All-time record:
Played: 93
Southampton: 20
Draws: 25
Arsenal: 48
Previous four meetings:
May 2017: Southampton 0-2 Arsenal
January 2017: Southampton 0-5 Arsenal
November 2016: Arsenal 0-2 Southampton (Clasie, Bertrand)
September 2016: Arsenal 2-1 Southampton
DID YOU KNOW?
– Southampton have only lost one of their last six home Premier League games against Arsenal (W2 D3), though it was in the last such meeting back in May
– Fraser Forster has conceded just five goals in his five Premier League games against Arsenal, despite the Gunners having 30 shots on target against the England keeper.
Lol…Mustafi is still out from his fake injury?
That coward! I hope in rots in that fake treatment room!
Arsenal tend to make the opponent’s goalkeeper look good, if the opponent defends well. Namely Fraser Forster, Jordan Pickford, Jack Butland and David De Gea (recently) have been famous because of their “performance” against Arsenal.
For more than ten years, Arsenal like to produce misplaced and predictable passes, because of the lack of creativity. As long as Wenger never improved his players’ passing quality, Arsenal will always have difficulties in breaking their opponent’s defense and they will always be vulnerable to quick counter-attacks.
When a team pass a lot , there bound to be so many misplaced passes. It doesn’t matter if it is forward passes or back passes. It will be nice if you can come up with how many misplaced passes arsenal makes in a match compare to successful passes to support your observation. Personally, i can recollect the last time arsenal having less than 80% pass completion rate in EPL.
I hope it won’t be another United game, where we dominate everything & come away with nothing!