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

Arsenal will look to close in on the Premier League’s top four when we take on Southampton at St Marys this evening.

Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Manchester United kept alive our hopes of playing Champions League football next season but we still have it all to do to sneak in to the top four.

We currently sit sixth in the table but a win tonight would see us climb to fifth and to within three points of Man City while Liverpool would be a further point ahead having played a game more.

Realistically, we need Liverpool to drop points in their last two games and Arsenal to win all four of our remaining fixtures to take fourth, so we simply can’t afford to slip up tonight.

However, St Marys has been a tricky ground for us in recent years as we haven’t won any of our previous five visits and tenth-placed Southampton will prove to be a tough test this evening.

Team News

Laurent Koscielny took part in full training yesterday so he looks to be winning his race to be fit after picking up a knock at the weekend. Shkodran Mustafi is on stand-by for a recall if the Frenchman is ruled out.

Granit Xhaka was also able to train on Tuesday despite being forced off against United with a calf problem while Lucas Perez could be back in the squad after recovering from a thigh injury.

Southampton could recall Charlie Austin after he recovered from a long-term injury while Matt Targett is also back in contention following a hamstring problem.

However, Virgil van Dijk and Alex McCarthy remain on the sidelines with long-term injuries.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

Southampton 1-2 Arsenal: We have lost our last two trips to Southampton and suffered defeats in five of our previous six league games this season so something has got to change if we’re to come away with all three points tonight. There were positive signs against United that we’re returning to some decent form and Southampton have very little left to play for. Hopefully we can keep things tight at the back and grind out a vital win.

Betting Tips

Arsenal are the 21/20 favourites to win this game with the bookmakers but we can get new customers enhanced odds of 7/1 on an away win this evening – just click here or above to take advantage of these crazy odds [winnings as free bet, £1 max stake, T&C’s apply].

Here are some other bets I like the look of:

• Both teams to score at: 6/10 – a £10 bet would return £16
• Exact score of 2-1 Arsenal at: 15/2 – a £10 bet would return £85
• Sanchez to score first in a 2-1 Arsenal win at: 20/1 – a £10 bet would return £210