Why Southampton will be harder to beat than BATE

We are all happy that Arsenal managed to topple the Belarus minnows BATE on Thursday, but now we we only have three days to recover before taking on one of our traditional bogey teams, Southampton, at the Emirates. The Saints are drawn into the dogfight for the last relegation spot and are fighting for their lives, but Ralph Hasenhuttl has made them a very hard team to beat since his arrival.

We all know that Southampton broke our 22-game unbeaten run when they beat us 3-2 in December at St Mary’s, and incredibly they have played in five away matches since then and haven’t lost one, including a draw at Chelsea and a win at Leicester, so we cannot expect them to shy away from thinking they can get another result at the Emirates. WE also cannot ignore the fact that they have had a refreshing two-week rest while our players have been playing our double header with BATE.

The boss knows how important this game is in our race for the Top Four. “Like all the teams in the Premier League, they are difficult and they will be preparing for this match with big players and also with time and for us it is difficult,” Emery said. “We have respect [for them] but we need to impose our gameplan and quality and intensity.

“It is very important to get the three points, we are playing at home with our supporters and I want to carry on stronger here but with a big demand from ourselves to find a victory.”

Thankfully we have turned the Emirates into a fortress again with 10 wins and 2 draws from our last 12 League games, and the stats say we haven’t lost to the Saints at home for 23 games! So we should also be feeling very confident in front of our fans, but I can’t help but have a nagging feeling that we are going to be a little fatigued after Thursday night….

Admin

8 Comments

  1. If we could master Bate and do it with a clean sheet as a result, the sky’s the limit when it comes to Saints.

    Joking aside, some good possible news (although OT):

    “Arsenal are set to make an offer for Roma technical director Monchi, reports the Daily Mail. The Gunners have also been linked with Ajax’s Marc Overmars for their technical director role, but their interest in the Dutchman has recently cooled. Monchi is understood to desire a move to England, and has a £1 million release clause in his Roma contract.”

    If this is true, it’s the best news after Sven left.
    Monchi’s scouting methods are legendary throughout Europe.

    1. This is great news, because Monchi and Emery have worked together before. Obviously we were all upset with Sven’s exit, so this a move in the right direction.

    2. Ajax have stopped the deal to take him to arsenal happening hence the reason they,re going for roma,s monchi who apparently is very keen so I read!

  2. We’ve got a very tough week coming up! Would love to win all 3, but very doubtful that’ll happen. Charlie Austin loves to score against us, so no doubt he’ll start….
    At least Laca will be back & I hope Auba finds the back of the net as he is falling behind in the golden boot race (& I’m desperate to see his celebration flip!) COYG

  3. Emery will I suspect revert to a defensive back three to match up with the Southampton system and reintroduce AMN and Kolasinac at wing back.Providing Lichsteiner does not play we should have enough in the tank to take the three points.Southampton are a cut above Bate and it will be critical interesting to see how Mustafi in particular copes against decent quality opposition.Despite their League position Southampton are a capable bunch who should not be relagated.

  4. So the Saints havent been beaten in 6 away
    matches.Its about time they lose

    If the gunners play like the bate game and having
    majority possession,they risk being hit on the break as it had happened many times before.
    I am hoping the gunners can win
    but it aint going to be easy

  5. Southampton bullied Arsenal out of 3 points in Southampton and our defence let them. No one had the big ones to stand up to their centre forward.

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