Things are not looking good for Arsenal ahead of tomorrows trip to St Marys to face a Southampton team that are playing with confidence, and they usually play even better against the Gunners!
Arsene Wenger has nothing but admiration for the South Coast side, who seem to sell their best players every summer, but still manage to replace them with just as much quality, and also bring plenty of highly talented youngsters through their academy.
The Saints beat Liverpool in both legs of their League Cup semi-final and Wenger knows that it will be a tough game tomorrow. Le Prof said on Arsenal.com: “They are on a high. They produced a fantastic performance at Liverpool, so overall that makes the game even more interesting and more difficult as well. They are not short of confidence at the moment and will certainly have a big support, but it’s an FA Cup game and we want to qualify.
“They are certainly a football club who have done one of the best jobs in producing young players, on keeping the quality high despite losing big players. Overall, I think they’ve done a remarkable job, because they were punished quite harshly because they went down to League One, but they came up and since they’ve produced consistent results and quality games. I think it is a club where you can say ‘really well done’ because what they’ve done is remarkable.”
Wenger also believes they are now an established top flight club after many years in the lower divisions. “I think they have the quality to do that.” Wenger continued. “When you look they produced Walcott, Bale, Oxlade-Chamberlain, plus all the players that have left them since. Last year they lost Wanyama, they lost Mane, and people thought they would suffer this year. Again, they have really top quality – they lost Lallana, they lost many top players. Overall what they have managed to do is absolutely remarkable. I think it’s the club in England that has produced and developed the most players in the last 10 years and that’s absolutely remarkable.”
One of the things that Wenger didn’t mention is that the Saints have beaten Arsenal in two Cup competitions in recent history as well, so we have every right to be worried about this game. Will Wenger finally get it right tomorrow?
Admin
Comes what may at ST Mary’s tomorrow, Arsenal will beat Southampton 0-3.at full-time. So, all and sundry of the Gooners should not worry. There is no cause for worrying because I strongly believed the Saints will not do a Cup double over the Gunners this season. Not even a draw will they play against the Gunners tomorrow to force a replay at the Emirates Stadium later to cause a fixture congestion for Arsenal. But rather, they’ll be beaten outrightly by the Gunners at the first time of asking.
They beat Liverpool, so what? Swansea also beat Liverpool. There is no cause to worry. If they beat us in league cup competition twice that is a competition where we normally field our reserve team. This is FA cup. I have no doubt that we will beat them.
Therefore, we have to play them with a reasonably strongest team composition. Other wise, we will be punished if we include more young players in the line up just like the league cup one. I hope Wenger will consider this situation if he really learnt from past.
The Wenger o jare know will bottle this too…#Unseriouse
Several cutting edge is missing at Arsenal therefore not so much should be expected of Arsene’s Arsenal led team.
Realistically the FA cup is our last main chance of a trophy this season so why not go out all guns blazing and win this game.
@Samuel Akinsola A.
last week, you predicted that we will walloped Burnley (4-0 I think).
The rest is history, as they say !!!
Prepare for another heart attack tomorrow. My hope is to see Danny “Well-baked” Welbeck doing well tomorrow.
@Sanmi,so Danny welbeck who just came back from injury should start ahead of Perez? I thought you people claim only wenger has favourite player/s. On the Topic,if Arsenal make a mistake of fielding even one youth player in that match,then we would be sorry for ourselves. The players should be ready for a tough match.