Arsenal vs Southampton: Betting preview with odds and prediction

Arsenal need to get back to winning ways and get their title charge back on track when they take on Southampton at the Emirates Stadium on Friday night.

The Gunners have been storming towards a shock Premier League title win having led the way for the entire season. However, under the heavy pressure of defending champions Manchester City hunting them down, the North Londoners appear to be cracking.

For the first time in the clubs history, they’ve let slip a two-goal lead in consecutive league games. Having led 2-0 early on at Anfield, Arsenal had to cling on to a point after Liverpool staged a comeback in the second half. In almost identical circumstances, Arsenal also had to settle for a 2-2 draw after blowing a two-goal cushion against West Ham last time out.

The draws mean Arsenal’s lead at the top is now down to just four points with City holding a game in hand, so Mikel Arteta’s men cannot afford another slip-up on Friday. Victory over Southampton would give the Gunners a seven point advantage heading into next week’s title decider at the Etihad Stadium, so this is an opportunity they can’t pass up.

Arteta should be confident of getting his troops back to winning ways as Arsenal welcome a struggling Saints team to North London. Southampton sit bottom of the table after failing to win any of their last six games so it would be a huge shock if Arsenal didn’t come out victorious.

Betting odds

Looking at the best odds on Finnish betting site comparison site Vedonlyontisivustoni.com, it’s no surprise to see that Arsenal are the heavy 1/6 odds-on favourites to win all three points in this game.

If you fancy a shock at the Emirates Stadium, you can back Southampton to claim a famous win at odds of 14/1 while the draw is available at around 6/1. However, only die-hard Southampton fans or betting speculators will surely back anything but a home win.

• Arsenal win 1/6
• Draw 6/1 
• Southampton win 14/1

Gabriel Jesus has been among the goals since returning from injury and has netted in his last two games. The Brazilian international is the 7/2 favourite to open the scoring in this encounter. Bukayo Saka missed a crucial penalty against West Ham so he’ll be looking to make amends on Friday night. He’s 9/2 to score first and 5/4 to score anytime in the game.

There should be goals in this match and Arsenal will be the main threat in front of goal. A 3-0 Arsenal win looks good at odds of 6/1. Southampton could take advantage of the Gunners’ leaky defence without William Saliba, so 3-1 could also be tempting at 17/2.

Team news

Saliba remains a major doubt as he continues to recover from a back injury so Rob Holding should keep his place alongside Gabriel in defence.

However, there should be better news regarding Oleksandr Zinchenko as the Ukrainian international is expected to return at left-back after missing the West Ham game with a knock.

Takehiro Tomiyasu remains out with a season-ending knee injury while Mohamed Elneny is also out with his own knee complaint.

As for Southampton, they’ll continue to be without Mohamed Salisu, Mislav Orsic and Juan Larios. Valentino Livamento and Che Adams are also doubts while Ainsley Maitland-Niles can’t feature against his parent club.

Prediction

Arsenal simply have to get back to winning ways and this is the perfect opportunity to do so. Southampton have struggled all season and while they got a rather fortunate point in the reverse fixture at St Mary’s earlier in the season, we can’t see anything other than an Arsenal win this time around. Arsenal 3-1 Southampton