Arsenal’s Predicted XI: We predict Mikel Arteta’s chosen XI to face a difficult away trip to Southampton
Arsenal boss Arteta has a big summer ahead of him.
Arsenal play their third game in eight days tonight, as they face off against Southampton on the South Coast.
It has been a disastrous start for Arsenal since the return of football, losing to both Manchester City and Brighton & Hove Albion in their first two fixtures.
Both fixtures were away from home and that’s the case again tonight as the Gunners face another trip to the South Coast to face a Southampton who are coming off the back of a comprehensive 3-0 win away at Norwich City.
Before lockdown, the North London outfit were showing signing of improvement, but were still very inconsistent in terms of performances and results.
So which players will be tasked with the challenge of picking up a vital three points? Here we predict Arteta’s XI…
Goalkeeper: The biggest talking point from the game away at Brighton was the injury sustained by Bernd Leno. This leaves Emiliano Martinez to come into the side for tonight’s game.
Defenders: Arteta started the game against City with Shkodran Mustafi and Rob Holding as his starting centre backs. But will David Luiz return after his shocking display against City? Unfortunately for the Gunners, Pablo Mari is out injured for the remainder of the season. The two starting full backs will be Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney.
Midfielders: Another controversial player Matteo Guendouzi is a definite starter and we think Bukayo Saka will get the nod again, after making an impressive start since lockdown. Dani Ceballos should also get the nod, as Arteta attempts to try and get some sort of consistency in terms of personnel to this Arsenal side.
Forwards: Eddie Nkeitah ran and ran on Wednesday night with little to no service and it’s a straight shootout between him and Alexandre Lacazette for this one. That leaves goalscorer Nicolas Pepe on the right, with club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang deployed on the left.
Predicted XI: Martinez, Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Tierney; Guendouzi, Ceballos, Saka; Pepe, Aubameyang, Lacazette