With Manchester City in FA Cup semi-final action this weekend, we have the chance to move seven points clear at the top of the table should we beat Southampton on Friday night.
The omens are good seeing as we have never lost in our 23 Premier League home games against the Saints - the most one side has hosted another without ever losing in the competition - and that run stretches back even further to 1987 when taking into account First Division meetings.
The Saints held us to a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture at St Mary’s in October, but since then Ralph Hassenhutl and Nathan Jones have been dismissed, with Ruben Selles now desperately trying to help his side off the foot of the table and back within touching distance of safety.
Selles in a sticky situation
A slow start by Hassenhuttl that yielded just three wins from the opening 14 games saw his near-four-year tenure come to an end in November, with Southampton 18th in the table.
Jones was quickly poached from Luton Town, and despite leading them to the League Cup semi-finals, the Welshman lost seven of his eight league matches and was also sacked, leaving his side bottom of the league.
Hassenhutl’s former assistant Selles claimed wins in two of his first three Premier League games as Chelsea and Leicester City were defeated, but since then he hasn’t tasted success in his team’s last six games, with last weekend’s 2-0 loss at home to Crystal Palace leaving them four points from safety with seven games to go.
What the managers say
Arteta: “After analysing Southampton in a lot of detail, they have impressed me quite a lot. If you watched the last game that they played, how they lost by the margin they lost, that margin wasn’t there.
“What Ruben and the coaches are doing is really good, and the rewards maybe haven’t been there in terms of the results in some games but they are a really good team.” - read every word from Mikel’s pre-match press conference
Selles: “We are hurting - all of us. We are just putting in so much to try to change the situation. Every game that goes without a result is hard and we're hurt, and this is something that we feel.
“People don’t need to misunderstand that everybody, when we lose, feels bad and everybody's working hard. But the important thing is that the next day you wake up, you come here, we talk about it, we fix the mistakes and then we try to go once again until the very end.”
Team news
William Saliba continues to be unavailable due to his ongoing back issues, while Oleksandr Zinchenko is also struggling to overcome the groin issue that kept him out against West Ham United in time.
Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny remain out longer-term with knee issues.
The Saints will be without top scorer Che Adams who picked up a calf injury on international duty last month and Selles believes will be out until the end of April, as well as Mohamed Salisu with the full-back struggling with a pelvic problem.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles cannot play against his parent club, and Tino Livramento is unavailable despite closing in on a return after playing for the B team having missed nearly a year with an ACL injury, while Juan Larios is a long-term casualty.
Talking tactics
Michael Cox, writing in the official matchday programme: Maybe it’s too simple to look at Southampton and consider James Ward-Prowse’s free-kicks their chief attacking threat. But the reality is that the Saints have won three league matches in 2023, and two have been won by his dead-ball expertise.
In open play, they are more organised and resilient than their league position might suggest. There are still hints of the heavy-pressing style favoured by Hasenhuttl, but they have played various systems in recent weeks - the most likely against us is a 4-2-3-1 which looks more like 4-4-2 without possession.
The centre-back pairing of Jan Bednarek and Armel Bella-Kotchap is solid enough, and Kyle Walker-Peters and Romain Perraud can push forward dangerously on the overlap. Ward-Prowse plays a cautious midfield role, sometimes pushing forward to whip the ball into the box, safe in the knowledge that Romeo Lavia is behind him.
In attack, Selles is not short of options. Carlos Alcaraz is an energetic midfielder who has caused serious problems with his running in behind and Theo Walcott is one of the favoured attackers, but maybe the real dangerman is Kamaldeen Sulemana [above] on the left. He’s yet to score or assist since moving from Rennes in January, but is a constant threat on the break.
Facts and stats
We have won our last four Premier League home games, netting at least three times in each. We last did that in five straight at Emirates Stadium between March and May 2018.
Following our 1-1 draw earlier in the season, the last time the Saints avoided defeat in both league matches with us was in 2015/16.
This is the first Premier League meeting between ourselves and Southampton on a Friday. The Saints could be the first opponents we have won a match against on every day of the week.
In Premier League history, the side bottom of the table has won just four times in 38 encounters with the league leaders, losing 14 of 15 such games away from home (D1). We haven't faced the bottom-placed side while top ourselves since December 1958.
We have dropped as many points from being ahead in our last two games (4) as we had in our previous 47 (draws with Southampton and Brentford this season).
Gabriel Jesus has scored nine league goals this season – with Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka already each scoring 10+, this could be just the second season to see four players reach double figures for us in the Premier League, after 2012/13 (Santi Cazorla, Olivier Giroud, Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott).
James Ward-Prowse has scored nine goals in all competitions, and could reach double figures for the second time in his career following his 11 last term. Four of those strikes came in London, including league goals at Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Fulham.
Match officials
For the third time in his career Simon Hooper will officiate one of our games, following on from his appointments for our 5-0 win against Nottingham Forest as well as our 4-2 success at Aston Villa earlier this term.
He hasn’t shown a red card in any of his 25 matches this campaign, and has awarded just two penalties - one of which saw Ward-Prowse convert from the spot to salvage a last-minute 3-3 draw against Tottenham last month.
- Referee: Simon Hooper
- Assistant Referee 1: Adrian Holmes
- Assistant Referee 2: Mark Scholes
- Fourth Official: Andre Marriner
- VAR: Peter Bankes
- Assistant VAR: Nick Greenhalgh
Recent visits from the Saints
Historically the Saints haven’t enjoyed their trips to our corner of north London, as we are unbeaten in our last 27 home league games against them. Only against Fulham (30 and counting) have we had a longer unbeaten home run against one team.
Last season saw us run out 3-0 victors thanks to goals from Alexandre Lacazette, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel, but before then we had been forced to settle for a point in our previous two encounters: Walcott came back to haunt us by scoring in a 1-1 draw in December 2020, while a last-minute Lacazette goal salvaged a 2-2 draw in November 2019.
The Frenchman enjoyed playing against the Saints, and again found himself on the scoresheet in a 2-0 win the previous February, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan also finding the target.
Watch the best of the action from five famous meetings between us and the Saints, including a first glimpse of Bergkamp brilliance, Ian Wright going for the Golden Boot and a night where two Gunners netted hat-tricks.
Breakdown Live
We’ve got your Friday night build-up covered on our matchday show which starts an hour before kick-off, with Nick Bright and Adrian Clarke joined in the studio by TikTokker Christian Tye, BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders and You Me At Six’s Josh Franceschi.
Arsenal New Zealand and pianist Cole Lam will also make appearances, while the guys will look back at the West Ham game with Adrian finding reasons for optimism as we approach the final month of the season, and analyse how we’ve been starting matches so quickly.
Then at 8pm, they will hand over to Dan Roebuck and Jeremie Aliadiere on commentary, who will take you through all the on-field action - so make sure you tune in!
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