Southampton v Arsenal preview | Confirmed team news | Expected line-ups | Prediction

Arsenal need to get back to winning ways when we take on Southampton at St Mary’s Stadium this evening. 

It’s been a nightmare week for Arsenal since football returned as we crashed to a 3-0 defeat at Manchester City before Neal Maupay scored a last gasp winner for Brighton to consign us to a humiliating 2-1 loss on Saturday afternoon.

We now head back to the south coast sitting 11th in the Premier League table having won just 9 Premier League games all season so Arsenal desperately need to come away with all three points this evening.

Victory over Southampton would see Arsenal climb up to ninth and move within six points of fifth-placed Manchester United which would keep alive hopes of securing a European qualification place so it’s vital we don’t slip up again tonight.

Mikel Arteta will be up against a Southampton side who moved up to 14th with a 3-0 win over Norwich last week and shockingly, the Saints can move level on points with Arsenal with a win at St Mary’s.

Team news

Arsenal have huge injury problems to deal with as Bernd Leno has been ruled out for up to six weeks with a knee injury while the club confirmed that Pablo Mari is facing at least two months out with an ankle ligament strain.

Gabriel Martinelli is also ruled out for an extended period after suffering a knee injury in training while Lucas Torreira is still two weeks away from returning from an ankle ligament problem.

Cedric Soares and Calum Chambers remain on the sidelines and David Luiz serves the final game of his two-match suspension but Granit Xhaka and Sokratis have returned to full training after missing the defeat at Brighton.

Southampton will be without Moussa Djenepo as he’s still suspended following his sending off against Newcastle but forward Shane Long is available again after recovering from a muscle issue.

Expected line-ups

Prediction

Southampton 1-2 Arsenal: Arsenal were a little unfortunate to lose at Brighton but this really is a must-win if we’re to salvage anything from this season. We’ve lost just one of our last eight Premier League games with Southampton but that was in this fixture last season so hopefully we can come away with a more positive result this time around.

Arteta is having to deal with a lengthy injury list but he’s under pressure to turn things around. Southampton looked good against a poor Norwich side but hopefully luck is on Arsenal’s side this evening. I’m backing the boys to edge it in a narrow 2-1 win.