Morning all.
It’s Southampton at home today, the second weekend in a row we’ve faced a newly promoted side. After what happened last weekend, you can be quite sure Mikel Arteta will have reminded his players that even the smallest lapses in concentration or discipline can be punished at this level. We left it very late to beat Leicester, and while there wasn’t much to complain about from an attacking perspective, we conceded two goals we could have done better with.
With regards team news, it’s particularly focused on right-back ahead of this one/ Arteta was asked about Jurrien Timber and Ben White, and said:
We had to modify training for a lot of players. We’ve done the same today because of the load that they had, so it’s a decision to make this afternoon, whether to involve them, yes or no. They are close, and Tomiyasu as well is quite close to being involved, so good news.
However, Timber isn’t in the Netherlands squad for the upcoming Interlull, so I don’t expect to see him today, and while you never know with Ben White, he might well miss out too. Could there be a welcome return for Tomiyasu? Perhaps, it’d be good to see him back, but if not the manager has some thinking to do when it comes to right-back.
In the absence of all other senior options, I wouldn’t be that surprised to see Thomas Partey play there. I thought Riccardo Calafiori was excellent there against PSG, but I’d rather see him do his stuff from his more natural position, not least because it feels a bit like he has opened up the left-hand side a bit. Arteta can choose from Jorginho or Mikel Merino to fill the midfield gap, and it means he can keep one senior defender on the bench in the shape of Jakub Kiwior.
I know we have a couple of young players who could potentially get the nod, but I think after what happened last weekend, and the fact we’re going into an Interlull, he’ll play as strong and experienced a team as he can. That’s why I don’t think there’ll be much change at the top end of the pitch either. The form of Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka demands their inclusion. Players like Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus might be champing at the bit to play more minutes, but I think their best hope is that we get ourselves into a comfortable position and they can try and make an impact from the bench.
Today also sees the return of Aaron Ramsdale after his summer move to the south coast. I’m sure he’ll get a great reception from the Arsenal fans, but he could be a busy man this afternoon. Last week Leicester’s Mads Hermansen put in an outstanding performance that denied us time and time again, and while I’m sure the goodwill from fans towards Ramsdale will be absolute reciprocated, he’ll be a man with something to prove today after the way his Arsenal career went. We don’t need to go over old ground, but he’s going to be especially fired up today I’m sure.
It will be interesting to see if Southampton modify their style at all. Playing out from the back is admirable, but when you don’t have the players to do it as efficiently as you’d like at Premier League level, sometimes you have to adapt. Burnley didn’t really do that last season and ended up relegated, and we saw in midweek that even without Martin Odegaard when Arsenal want to press they can do it in an effective, coordinated manner which puts the opposition under real pressure. PSG couldn’t cope, I don’t expect Southampton to be able to either.
On paper this is a game Arsenal will be expected to win, but as we saw last week, football can be a bit mad, so hopefully that’s a lesson learned. 2-0 up and comfortable, and we were nail biting until those two late goals. I know we don’t always do things the easy way, but it’d nice if today was one of those days.
Right, I’ll leave it there for now. Join us later for live blog coverage, plus you’ll get the match report, goal clips, reaction, player ratings and much more over on Arseblog News.
Come on you reds!
