Arsenal vs Southampton Preview, Team News, Line-Ups, Betting Tips & Predicted Score

Arsenal will look to get their Premier League title charge back on track when they take on Southampton at the Emirates tonight. 

We booked our place in the fifth round of the FA Cup with a 2-1 victory over Burnley on Saturday but the players must now switch focus back to league matters this evening.

Arsene Wenger will be demanding a response from his squad after we slumped to a disappointing loss to Chelsea last weekend which has left us sitting third in the table and three points adrift of leaders Leicester City.

January was a disappointing month in the league as we picked up just two points from our last three matches so it’s vital we get back to winning ways tonight in order to keep ourselves in touch at the top.

However, we know it’s going to be a difficult game as Southampton thrashed us 4-0 at St Mary’s on Boxing Day so hopefully the players will use that result as motivation and will be out for revenge.

Ronald Koeman’s side also beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford last time out in the league which saw them climb to eighth in the table and just three points off sixth.

BACK ARSENAL TO WIN AT CRAZY ODDS OF 5/1  + MONEY BACK IF YOU LOSE

Team news

Tomas Rosicky has been ruled out for at least a month after suffering a fresh thigh injury during his 20 minute cameo appearance against Burnley on Saturday.

Wenger is set to make plenty of changes with the likes of Petr Cech, Hector Bellerin, Nacho Monreal, Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil all set to return after being rested at the weekend.

Per Mertesacker is also due to return to the starting eleven after serving his one-match suspension following his dismissal against Chelsea with Gabriel the man most likely to drop out.

Francis Coquelin and Alexis Sanchez made successful injury returns on Saturday but Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla remain on the sidelines.

Danny Welbeck is back in full training but this game will come too soon as he’s still lacking match fitness following over nine months on the treatment table.

As for Southampton, Charlie Austin is set to make his first start up front after he scored the winner from the bench against United but Graziano Pelle (knee), Steven Davis (knock), Jay Rodriguez (ankle) and Florin Gardos (knee) are unavailable.

Likely Line-ups

Predicted Score

Arsenal 2-1 Southampton: The defeat at St Mary’s is still fresh in the memory but it will hopefully be a different story at the Emirates tonight. We’ve got close to our best eleven available and many of the players should be fresh after being rested at the weekend, so I think we’ll do enough to secure a vital three points.

Betting Tips

The Gunners are the 4/5 favourites to win the game but Football-Talk can get you enhanced odds of 5/1 on a home win – just click here to take advantage of these crazy odds. My prediction of 2-1 is on offer at 15/2 while I also like the look of Olivier Giroud to open the scoring at 4/1. If you combined those two bets in a score-cast then we get very tempting odds of 20/1.

BACK ARSENAL TO WIN AT CRAZY ODDS OF 5/1  + MONEY BACK IF YOU LOSE

What do you think? What line-up would you like to see start?