This Wednesday sees Champions League chasing Arsenal travel to St Mary’s to take on a Southampton side who haven’t been in the best form in recent times.
Arsenal will be full of confidence coming into this game after beating a strong Manchester United side on Sunday afternoon. Danny Welbeck, who scored against his former club at the weekend, will look to cause Southampton problems as he did earlier on this season in the FA Cup.
Arsene Wenger’s change of formation has seemed to bring a new spark to Arsenal that we haven’t seen all too often this season, with players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Rob Holding thriving in this 3-4-2-1 system they have adopted.
Southampton will also have a little bit of confidence after gaining a point up at Anfield at the weekend. Although they haven’t beaten a top six side in the league this season, their two most recent performances against top six sides have been promising with a 4-2 loss away at Chelsea and the 0-0 at Anfield. They seem to sit deep and soak up pressure and try and break on the counter.
I expect Arsenal to dominate possession and have a load of chances, which does scare me considering Fraser Forster’s performances this season, but he’ll be full of confidence after a clean sheet and saving a penalty away to Liverpool on Sunday.
Southampton have already faced Arsenal three times this season and Saints did manage to beat Arsenal at the Emirates in the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup, although Arsenal were using a weakened side.
I’m predicting a close affair on Wednesday night, but I do believe Southampton could edge it if we play similarly to as we did against Chelsea a couple of weeks ago. I’m predicting Southampton 2-1 Arsenal.
