Arsenal vs Southampton Preview & Prediction | 2024-25 English Premier League
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Having been nominated for the September Premier League Manager of the Month award, Mikel Arteta will be looking to kick off October with a big win as Arsenal welcome a poor Southampton side to the Emirates Stadium this weekend.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Saturday 5th October, 2024 - UK – 3:00pm / US ET – 10:00am / US PT – 7:00am
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – Not televised / US – Not televised
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – Cannot be streamed / US – Peacock
ARSENAL PREVIEW: GUNNING FOR THE TITLE
As they try and compete on all four fronts, Arsenal come into this one on the back of an unbeaten start to the campaign across all competitions that continued last weekend with a 4-2 victory over Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium in which they scored two second-half stoppage-time goals to secure the three points.
The Gunners endured a tough fixture list in September with away trips to Tottenham Hotspur, Atalanta and Manchester City but came away with two draws and a victory in those matches. A defeat of Bolton Wanderers in the third round of the EFL Cup also keeps them in contention for numerous potential trophies.
SOUTHAMPTON PREVIEW: SAINTS NEED A MIRACLE
Under the management of former Swansea City and Milton Keynes Dons boss Russell Martin, Southampton are continuing to play their way and absolutely wedded to their quite extreme style of football. It has not brought about results in the Premier League, though, with Saints collecting just one point from their opening seven matches.
The visitors come into this one on the back of a 3-1 defeat to AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium in their most recent outing, last weekend. In that game, Southampton found themselves 3-0 down at half-time and that came a week after conceding a late equaliser to Ipswich Town at St Mary’s.
ARSENAL TEAM NEWS: TIMBER CONCERNS
In his pre-match press conference, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has confirmed that there will have to be late decisions made on the involvement of defensive trio Ben White, Jurrien Timber and Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Oleksandr Zinchenko remains unavailable but should return after the October international break, whilst Martin Odegaard is 'pushing hard' but no time scale has been offered on when he will return.
PREDICTED XI (4-4-2): David Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Saka, Rice, Jorginho, Gabriel Martinelli; Trossard, Havertz
UNAVAILABLE: Zinchenko (Injured), Odegaard (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE: Timber (Injured), Tomiyasu (Injured), White (Injured), Tierney (Injured)
SOUTHAMPTON TEAM NEWS: STEPHENS SUSPENSION
Jack Stephens has served a three-match suspension for his red card against Manchester United but the captain has been handed a couple of extra matches to be banned for due to his language used towards match officials.
As well as the centre-back, Russell Martin will also have to make do without midfielder Will Smallbone, whilst Kamaldeen Sulemana is also sidelined due to injury.
PREDICTED XI (4-2-3-1): Ramsdale; Sugawara, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Taylor; Downes, Ugochukwu; Cornet, Fernandes, Fraser; Dibling
UNAVAILABLE: Bazunu (Injured), Stephens (Suspended), Smallbone (Injured), Sulemana (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
ARSENAL VS SOUTHAMPTON PREDICTION
Arsenal have been dealing with plenty of injury issues of late so they haven’t been able to rest and rotate perhaps as much as they would have liked. However, Mikel Arteta’s side will see this as a final push before the October international break. Southampton, with spiky comments by Russell Martin not helping, are in a very tough situation and sandwich the break with away games against Arsenal and Manchester City. Damage limitation would perhaps be sensible but that isn’t how they play.
ARSENAL VS SOUTHAMPTON TIP: ARSENAL TO WIN -1 HANDICAP
