Southampton, a must win for both…

Morning all.

Both the Arsenal men and women have suffered a setback in their chase for a League title this week. 2-2 at the London Stadium was a real disappointment for the men and then the women were beaten 1-0 at Old Trafford on Wednesday night. Leah Williamson suffered an injury early in the first half and now faces a race to be fit for Sunday’s WCL match against Wolfsburg in Germany. It’s been a bit of a drab season for the women as far as injuries go.

Southampton’s results away from St Mary’s in 2023 – they’ve beaten Everton and Chelsea, been beaten by West Ham, Leeds and Brentford and drawn against Man Utd. Overall, they’ve won just six League fixtures all season, drawn five and lost the remaining twenty which is why they are looking like one of the favourites to be relegated. They’ll need to win a lot of the 21 points left on offer if they’re to remain a Premier League club but there’s no way they should be getting three tonight. Southampton will of course think otherwise.

Ché Adams is their highest goal scorer with ten and just behind him is James Ward-Prowse on nine. Give him a free-kick to take in a dangerous area and he’ll fancy his chances of scoring from it. It’s what he does and does it well. Take heed Arsenal.

No sign of William Saliba or Oleksandr Zinchenko in the training photos on AFC.com but there is a photo of the former on a bicycle in the gym, however, don’t get too excited as Mikel Arteta has played down any idea of an imminent return:

The picture hasn’t changed from last week. Regarding William, we still have to wait a little bit more. He’s not progressing as quickly as we hoped and it is a bit delicate so we want to be certain that when we push him, he’s ready to absorb the load and the risk that we’ll take, and that’s not possible at the moment.

When pressed on whether he’ll play again this season:

I don’t know, it’s a bit early to know. Probably next week we’ll have more certainty. There is some evolution, he’s doing more activity but is not there yet to start to throw him into the pitch at the level the sessions demand to compete in this league.

Rob Holding is likely to start again tonight, unless Mikel Arteta tries something different but why would he? Rob Holding isn’t the reason we dropped points in the last two fixtures. Kieran Tierney is likely to start too as Oleksandr Zinchenko hasn’t recovered in time.

We heard from Gabriel Jesus after the West Ham game and his message was clear. Arsenal need to raise their level and for the entire match rather than 20/30 minutes. I don’t want to be overly critical of the Brazilian because he’s brought so much energy to the team but, he frustrates me in a similar fashion as Alex Lacazette used to. He’s hard working, always wants to be involved etc but sometimes he gets in places he doesn’t need to be in. Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Leandro Trossard – whoever is behind or along side his number 9 position, needs him to be in space where he can cause havoc in the box, and not just a foot or two away from them. Everything good Arsenal has been doing this season has been about the speed and slick passing. The teams main striker needs to be up with the move, not trying to make up ground from the halfway line. And whilst talking about ground, how about trying to stay upright on it. Honestly, sometimes, the way footballers go to ground so easily, it’s embarrassing. I hate seeing our players doing it.

Arsenal need a win tonight, a convincing one and a good performance to go with it. A confidence booster before going to The Etihad. The players have wobbled a bit in the last two games but at The Emirates and with our own fans behind the players, we’ll hopefully get this title chase back on track.

Catch up in the comments.