Arsenal take on Southampton at St Mary’s this afternoon, looking for three points to extend the lead at the top of the table.
Here are the official line-ups.
Southampton: To follow
Subs:
Arsenal: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Partey, Xhaka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Saka, Jesus
Subs: Turner, Cedric, Holding, Tierney, Lokonga, Vieira, Nelson, Marquinhos, Nketiah
Come on boys!
Strong team again. Let’s revenge last season!
Let’s beat them, lads.COYG!!!
No tierney again ..hope he works hard n comes bk..this is for d interest of the team ..
Lets go gunners
#COYG
A bit gutted for Tierney as I love the guy, but Tomiyasu is amazing too, and I guess these things happen at big clubs who want to challenge for the title. Come on Arsenal!
My thought exactly.
Many will not agree with this, but this Tomi LB thing is getting over done now. It worked fantastic against Liverpool and it’s an option we cam fall back to every now and then. But having a specialist LB sit on the bench while fitting a RB into his place is baffling to me.
I LOVE Tomi. But beginning to think Tierney is getting hard done by here.
He’s only played their twice in the PL so far? Tomi is the better LB I think. He needs time in that position too before we can judge him. His two footedness gives him the edge over Tierney.
I’ll trust artetas judgement if that’s ok
A lot of focus is always on the individual and what we know of a rigid formation position. But these are really modern times. What we wished and prayed for. Young hungry talented players with a manager to mould them into a modern tactical flexible shape. Why are we complaining about a left back when we have exactly that flexible modern player who fits into the system? KT will get his chance, he always has. But Tomi is so good. He also allows us tactical flexibility when we bring on EITHER KT or Zinchenko for White and Tomi can also… Read more »
I can’t speak for anyone else but I am complaining because while Tomi played LB against Liverpool to do a very specific job (i.e. Salah) he is not a natural LB & I thought he struggled v Leeds.
Almost all the players struggled vs Leeds is not the issue tomi alone even our almighty saliba..the issue with the Leeds match was because of fatigue.they travelled Norway to play on Thursday night came back Friday evening with little or no time to train and play away to Leeds on Sunday..it isn’t easy man
In Nigeria, we refer to this as taking paracetamol for someone else’s headache.
Support the team and trust the manager’s call in team selection.
Haha this is a terrific expression.
Is that what Davido meant when he wrote “Tell me why them dey use Panadol for our headache”?
Can confirm!
Some of you can be so touchy. What’s wrong with giving my take about a line up before the game? Funny.
I can understand the choice of Tomi against big team like pool or city. But against Southampton, Tierney should get his chance and replaced if he cannot handle. Otherwise you discouraged him and doubt himself.
I’m with you, Tomi is defensively more sound, put salah in his pocket but maybe arteta thinks Tomi is better at filling in in midfield like zinchenko does.
Isn’t it just that Arteta has the LB come into midfield a lot in this system and he feels Tomi is better in that role tan KT? Better and more versatile on the ball basically?
That particular tactical tweak wasn’t on display today. Tomi and Martinelli hardly linked up today. This is a game where we knew we were going to have more of the ball… just let the attacking LB start ffs!
Maybe Artera prefers to keep Tierney on the field for European games (as one of the experienced / safe choice at the back) and considering his past experience it makes sense to play him once per week only?
I wonder what this means for Tierney over the long term. He’s absolutely 3rd choice LB now which is crazy considering how good he is.
Tierney, with his more attacking instincts and wide play, is a good super sub to bring on if chasing a goal.
Tomiyasu is more inclined and better at moving into the central midfield position which will help us control the game.
I’s good to have these options and Tierney will surely start many games over the course of this season.
It’s not correct to say Tierney is now 3rd choice LB.
It’s a well-known Mikel trait to stick with a winning team in the league.
Besides, Tierney will get the PSV game on Thursday. Plenty of minutes to go around at the moment.
by the same logic, if we keep on winning then when Zinchenko is fit, he’ll be third choice. which makes me think if we did not have option, he would be rushed in, but given that there’s cover, Tomy and KT will be able to cover this role.
Jesus hasn’t scored in a few games, I have a good feeling he’ll bag one today
I am gutted about Tierney’s long term future – I want the guy to stay 10 years but I can’t see right now how that can happen
Average height of that back four is like 6’2”! It’s never been like that in the more recent seasons, and that’s caused us some real struggles.
The complexion of the Arsenal team is really changing, and it’s one to be excited about!
Let’s go boyz!
I’m not sure about playing Tomi at LB all the time. It was understandable against Mo Salah but wouldn’t Tierney offer more of an attacking threat? Whatever the lineup let’s hope it’s an easy 3 points.
We have plenty of attacking players who offer attacking threat.
Tierney’s attacking specialty, which is knocking the ball to the byline, beating the full-back for pace, and whipping in a cross, is not technical enough for Artetaball.
Having Tomiyasu cover for Xhaka is freeing him up to do what he has been doing this season.
Different avenues of attack.
You take anything from this.
Arteta is simply managing his resources knowing that Tierney is a bit susceptible to injury.
Lots of games to play plus a forthcoming world cup tournament he has to balance things.
Tierney is a major player for the club, but the truth is we can afford to drop him
Who to Southampton have attacking on the right? Why can’t Tierney start in his natural position? He’s now no. 3??? Unfair. Tomiyasu for Salah was a great idea. But I don’t see why this was necessary. Soon KT will be looking to go somewhere else!
KT started in the PSV game and is starting from the bench today.
Elyounoussi, to answer your question.
It’s not about being fair. It’s about picking the best team to win the match.
Southampton is due one from us in my opinion. Please win today, boys!
Tierney started on Thursday night. He will start next Thursday too.
Do the people calling for him to play 3 times in a week remember his injury reocord? It’s unrealistic to expect him to start 3 games in 7 days.
A win all day long today for me
Bit sad about Tierney.
Tierney will be very important post world cup. Better to manage his workload with that in mind given his injury record recently
It’s a strong team for a “tricky” game. We got a couple of favourable results yesterday (Liverpool’s and Chelsea/Utd) so let’s hope we can get the points today.
I hope this one doesn’t go 1-0 until the end, this ref is fishy as hell
He’s crooked alongside whichever tit is up there in the VAR room.
Should have had two penalties, the one not given on Jesus is a disgrace.
Still only 1:0. Let’s hope we get that second goal – and Jesus scores it.
Jesus brings a lot to this team just wish he would bring a few more goals..
We are not at our best. But the ref today is awful! What is his line?!
Just too many misses. Jesus and sak got to start putting away these chances
We run out of gas and Partey was too casual in the last quarter of the game
FFS
We gave that point to them.
Complacency is a killer.
I like Jesus but I am beginning to suspect he is not the answer to our goal scoring problems up front.
He just doesn’t score enough goals
Very disappointing overall…
Yes indeed..he will become our lightning rod soon
Several players looked tired to me, including Jesus. The bottom line is that we’re not scoring enough goals currently as a team – four games now with a goal a game. We were, if we’re honest, lucky to get away with all the points at Leeds but today as long as it remained at 1:0 anything could happen. Anyway, we got a point from a “tricky” fixture for us in the past.
It has to come to an end at some point. But we simply threw this game away, and the substitution weakened us really☹️
We run out of steam. Squad is not deep enough
Ran completely out of steam in 2nd half and subs made no impact. Square passing and back passing with no movement up front after conceding. Southampton never lost with this ref in charge was the stat before the game. I can see why honestly. Saka and Jesus need to be rested completely for a week and Martinelli needs his minutes controlled for few weeks. They look spent and season is long.