Sunday afternoon sees Arsenal travel to Saint Mary’s to face Southampton in what is a big game at both ends of the table. Southampton come into this one off the back of an important 1-0 win at Bournemouth to halt a run of five games where they picked up just one point. Arsenal are on a fantastic run of eight victories on the bounce and 13 wins in their last 14, including a 1-0 win against PSV in midweek. This has seen them storm to the top of the league, where they sit four points clear of Manchester City and Spurs in second and third.
Despite Southampton finally picking up a win in midweek, a large percentage of the Southampton fans are Hasenhuttl out. They sit in 14th but only two points clear of the relegation zone and Wednesday’s game was the Saints’ first clean sheet of the season. They scored early in that game and the manager will be pleased that they managed to hold strong for the remaining 81 minutes given that they have scored first against both West Ham and Everton and come away with one point across the two games in the last few weeks. Southampton have plenty of injury woes too. Kyle Walker-Peters limped off in midweek and he joins Armel Bella-Kotchap, Valentino Livramento and Romeo Lavia as players that need to be treated. They will also be without Ainsley Maitland-Niles who is unable to face Arsenal – his parent club. They have not won back-to-back games since February, and they’ll have a very tough task to do so here considering they come up against a very strong Arsenal side.
Arsenal have been flying this season and are one of the two best teams in the country alongside Manchester City right now. Mikel Arteta has got their fans dreaming again and they’ll be hoping to carry on their incredible run of form. One of the things that has been impressive about them is their ability to win “ugly”, when not at their best. Their last three games they’ve won by a narrow margin of 1-0 and the Leeds game they were fortunate to win given that Leeds missed a penalty as well as other big chances. Nevertheless, they came away with three points and managed to extend their lead at the top. They were able to rest several key players like Ramsdale, Ben White, Saliba, Martinelli and Partey in midweek, but were slightly concerned that Bukayo Saka took a knock against the Dutch side. However, Arteta said it wasn’t too serious but there is still the chance he may be rested in a busy schedule.
Southampton v Arsenal Bet Builder Tips
Arsenal to Win
Southampton have been very poor so far this season, especially at home. They currently sit in 19th in the home table, only above Everton on goals scored. They have surrendered 1-0 leads in their last two, including a loss to Everton after conceding two goals in the space of three minutes. Before, they had an impressive win over Chelsea but this was a struggling Chelsea side that was defensively frail this season under Thomas Tuchel. Defensively, they’ve been very poor with only one clean sheet all season, and none at home, and this will be furthered this weekend as a result of having no right back. Given Martinelli’s ability down Arsenal’s left-hand side, this could be a big area that they will look to exploit. The Saints have lost four of their five games at home on expected goals so far this season and have conceded at least two xG in their last two home matches.
Arsenal’s form and impressive start to the season is being spoken about a lot. Not even the most optimistic Arsenal fans could have foreseen that they would have won nine of their opening ten Premier League games, and away from home their record is superb. In their five games, they have scored ten goals and conceded just three – all of which came in one game. They will be hoping to be defensively solid again here as they continue to try and hold off Manchester City. Normally, playing Europa League on a Thursday night can be an issue, but this week Southampton also had a game – on Wednesday – and only had one extra day of rest. This effect, I think, will be negligible due to many of Arsenal’s first team players getting rested at the Emirates, and arguably makes them stronger.
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Prediction: Arsenal to Win
Gabriel Martinelli to Score or Assist
For the reasons explained above, I think Arsenal will win this game, and I think a key part of that should be Gabriel Martinelli. The Brazilian has been on red hot form this season and has four goals and two assists already this season. He was rested on Thursday night and should be prepared to come back here having been given a full week off, something the Southampton defenders won’t have had either. The winger has had 37 shots so far this season and creates plenty of opportunities for himself and will fancy his chances against a makeshift Southampton wingback – likely Elyounoussi, who can be quite attacking. Saka is also a slight doubt and is unlikely to play the full 90 given his knock on Thursday night, so more onus will be on Martinelli to take the game to Southampton.
As mentioned above, Southampton will be struggling for a right back here. Martinelli has terrorised many full backs so far this season, and a makeshift full back is not what the Saints needed for this one. The last “top” left winger to play against Southampton was Phil Foden who managed a goal and an assist and Martinelli will be hoping for a similar return here.
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Prediction: Gabriel Martinelli to Score or Assist
Martin Odegaard to have 1+ Shot on Target
Martin Odegaard has really imposed himself as part of this Arsenal team over the last 18 months, which has seen him become captain. He has had 23 shots so far this season and nine shots on target, including at least one in his last three games – which has included Spurs and Liverpool. In the league, he has had 22 shots and had at least one shot on target in six of nine games, as well as six of his last seven. These numbers are up on last season, where he had an average of 0.68 shots on target per 90, but this should be expected given that he’s grown into his role a bit more and Arsenal are a better team generally. Odegaard was given some rest as he was subbed off in the 72nd minute against PSV, unscathed.
Southampton have played three teams that play with a number 10 in Odegaard’s sort of role. On the opening day of the season, Rodrigo managed five shots, three of which were on target, for Leeds and Bruno followed this up with another two shots on target for Manchester United, as well as another three attempts. Matheus Nunes only managed one shot for Wolves but that can be discredited since Arsenal are a much stronger and more attacking side than Wolves.
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Prediction: Martin Odegaard to have 1+ Shot on Target
Under 3.5 Cards
Eyebrows were certainly raised when Manchester United splashed out £85 million to sign Antony from Ajax. The Brazilian has quickly settled into Premier League life with 3 goals so far, but his all round attacking play has impressed most. He has plenty of shots for Manchester United, he has averaged 4.04 per 90, this puts him in the top 3% of wingers in Europe’s top 5 leagues. In 5 Premier League matches he has had at least 3 shots in 4 of them and he often has even more shots against the top teams. He had 3 shots against Arsenal, 4 shots against Spurs and 5 against Manchester City. His average shot distance is 19.9 yards away from goal, this shows he does not need an invitation to shoot, he is happy to shoot from range and over 50% of his shots are from outside the box. Up against a wing-back in this match with Dalot bombing on, Antony can use this 2v1 to create chances for himself so I expect him to have plenty of shots again in this match.
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Prediction: Under 3.5 Cards
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How to watch Southampton v Arsenal in the Premier League?
📅 When is Southampton v Arsenal? / Sunday, 23rd October 2022, 2:00PM
🏟 Where is Southampton v Arsenal? / St. Mary’s Stadium (Southampton)
📺 What TV channel is Southampton v Arsenal on? / Sky Sports Main Event
🟨 …And who is the referee for Southampton v Arsenal? / R. Jones 🏴
