The hectic schedule continues today with a trip to Southampton, a ground which proved painful to visit last season, and which has been a tough track for us in the past one more than one occasion.
That said, the team today should be markedly different from one last April which started Cedric and Nuno Tavares in the full-back positions, with Albert Sambi Lokonga in midfield and Eddie Nketiah making his first Premier League start of the campaign. This time around, Mikel Arteta can choose between Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu for right-back and, fitness depending, Kieran Tierney and Oleksandr Zinchenko on the left. If the Ukraine international isn’t available, I hope it will be Tierney rather than Tomi who wasn’t quite at his best last week (albeit that’s true for pretty much everyone).
Beyond that, I think the team more or less picks itself bar any injury niggles we’re not aware of. Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka started in midweek, and I think these are the players the manager is talking about when he speaks about the demands of playing every three days. Gabriel Martinelli came off the bench on Thursday, and should be sharp again for this one.
Speaking of Jesus, he’s obviously been very important for us this season, but it just feels like his game needs a goal right now. It didn’t quite fall for him in midweek despite the fact he had 5 attempts on goal, and today would be a very timely day to get back on the scoresheet. The game against PSV was won with a goal from midfield, but for the most part I think our front three are going to be decisive in the Premier League this season, he’s leading that line so fingers crossed.
Last week, the 1-0 win over Leeds was probably our worst performance of the season, and without going into it in too much depth, I think part of the issue was facing a team who had a free week to train and get ready, while we traveled to and from Norway with basically no time between the games for proper preparation. We still should have been capable of better, but it felt a bit like the perfect storm of playing poorly and coming up against an opponent that just had that bit extra from a physical perspective. Today, it’s not quite the same. Southampton played in midweek too, and although we were in action against PSV, I don’t expect that be as much of a consideration today.
The manager referenced last season in his pre-game press conference, saying:
Well, obviously there was an experience that was painful with the way the game turned out and the consequences of it. We know where the danger is with their team.
Still, we began this season away at Selhurst Park, a ground which has been more problematic than St Mary’s, and came away with all three points. I think if we play to our potential today, we’re capable of doing the same. Hopefully last week at Elland Road was just an anomaly, a blip in our performance levels that we put right. If we do that, we should be confident that we can add another win to our collection.
There’s not a lot else to say about this one. Kick off is 14.00, and we’ll bring you live blog coverage as well as all the usual bits and pieces on Arseblog News afterwards.
Catch you later for the game.
