Sunday, December 22, 2024

Xhaka returns to midfield: Southampton v Arsenal team news

Arsenal take on Southampton, looking for it to be third time lucky in the post-lockdown football world.

Here are this evening’s official line-ups.

Southampton: McCarthy, Valery, Stephens, Bednarek, Bertrand, Hojberg, Ward-Prowse, Armstrong, Redmond, Obafemi, Ings

Subs: Gunn, Walker-Peters, Vertergaard, Vokins, Romeu, Smallbone, Tella, Long, Adams

Arsenal: Martinez, Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Tierney, Xhaka, Ceballos, Saka, Aubameyang, Pepe, Nketiah

Subs: Macey, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Willock, Smith, Nelson, Ozil, Lacazette

Follow the game on the Arseblog live blog

Related articles

Comments

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

27 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Mentally Drained Gooner

If Laca is not good enough to start games for us we should consider selling him. Maybe exchange him for some other partey

Rocky07

Yep agreed Lacazette’ days at a Arsenal must be numbered especially if we can get good money for him. I think you will find the only way Arteta will be able to bring in proven quality is by selling under-performers who have a reasonable resale value, so he can reinvest some quality in this under whelming team.
The next 8 games are all about Arteta deciding who he wants to stay and are willing to buy into his ideas for the future.

Grumbleduke

Who is smith on our bench? Thought smith Rowe was staying out on loan

Ringoxiii
Grumbleduke

Cheers, best of luck to the youngster

Rocky07

Our academy players must be licking their lips at the moment, anyone in the U23 has a chance to break into our 1st team. This the 1 thing that keeps my interest alive and kicking.

Artetas Assistant

Can’t wait to see Saka become a right-mid KDB ?, by my statements heaping pressure on the young lad

Martinouzi

Nketiah upfront and Ceballos in midfield? Where is Guendouzi? He was our best player on Saturday. This team is I’m underwhelming

Paul Roberts

I expect he was dropped for his behaviour after the final whistle last time out?

Mouise

Against Brighton, he had strictly 0 input (shoot, tackle, assist, created chance.. ) but yes, he showed a high level of arrogacy.

Artetas Assistant

Sideways passing, Slow decisioning, was always behind/ahead of their forwards thus alienating our CBs. Childish. Unless those were his tasks

Artetas Assistant

Matteo wasn’t our best player, more like the worst because he was in CM when we needed some DM play out of him

Espen

Yes Donald . This team is underwhelming. Nketiah will never score, just like sleepy Willock will not score. We will loose this game. Arteta proves he is not competent enough to be Arsenals manager with this lineup. Oh, did Nketiah just score. What is Willock doing? Oh he just scored. We just won, with Xhaka playing his first game after covid lockdown. Just a happy outcome I guess, just luck. Someday it will proven that if we do less testing we will have less cases of covid 19 and that all arsenal fans with an opinion should be managers and… Read more »

GraeB

Not sure about lineup – need a No 10 playmaker. Don’t see that being Saka or Ceballos. Got the wide players but not the heart to (or in?) the team.

myrtle

Guendouzi is watching from the sofa then

Jht

Theres absolutrly no physical strenght in this team, they are battered by Sotons MEN in midfiled and soon we wonder:”but how???”

The fact is that this team is weak.

Sank

Hope Bellerin gets to plant trees now.

goongot

Hopefully he can cross that out of his list. He’s not good at crossing though.

Rocky07

It is good that his commitment wasn’t
Win= plant a tree
Lose= chop a tree down.

ron

The current dysfunction of our central midfield reminds me of the Jensen/Hillier days. Nothing against any individuals. Not their fault they lack the quality and consistency needed at the top level.
Looking forward to being proven wrong of course.

Paul Roberts

Shooot!!!! 🙂
 

Tombo

Need Holding to have a solid game tonight. Have visions of Long bullying us late on. Hopefully game is put to bed by then.

Nameless_Gooner

Guendouzi done for?

Paul Roberts

No just a learning lesson for the young man dished out by Mik.
 

PartyPedroBien

I thought I’d see a Martinelli start in a congested fixture week, he didn’t even make the squad?

Bergkamp2Wright

Can’t believe I’m saying this but when is Soares fit because Bellerin is a liability at the moment.

Share article

Featured on NewsNow

Support Arseblog

Latest posts

Latest Arsecast

27
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x