Arsenal will face off against Southampton at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday looking to build on their success over Huddersfield Town and BATE Borisov. The Gunners have performed well over the past few weeks and are in with a chance of securing a top 4 spot at the end of this campaign. With Manchester United set to host Liverpool later that evening, Unai Emery’s men will have a golden opportunity to leapfrog the Red Devils in the Premier League standings if they manage to secure a win against the Saints this weekend.
It is expected that the North London outfit will set-up in a 3-4-1-2 formation as Emery could opt to start with Mesut Ozil so that the German playmaker can open up the Saints defence with some killer passes in the final third.
3-4-1-2 Arsenal Predicted Lineup To Face Southampton
Defence
Bernd Leno will begin the match in goal for Emery’s side once again this weekend after being rested in his team’s midweek win over BATE Borisov. The Gunners could lineup with a back three of Nacho Monreal, Shkodran Mustafi, and Laurent Koscielny to stop the Saints from scoring on Sunday.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos will be a part of Emery’s bench and might come on during the clash if required.
The North London giants have been mediocre in defence over the past few weeks as they have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last three Premier League matches. Thus, the Arsenal defenders need to improve a lot against the Saints if they are to keep a shut-out at the back this weekend.
Midfield
The dynamic midfield duo of Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira could feature as the holding midfielders as they look to establish Arsenal’s dominance at the middle of the park.
Sead Kolasinac will look to use his pace and power down the left flank. Ainsley Maitland-Niles will aim to do the same on the right side of the Gunners midfield. Mesut Ozil might get a rare chance to start a league match as he takes up the number 10 position to operate as the attacking midfielder. His primary responsibility would be to create opportunities for Aubameyang and Lacazette to feed on in the attacking end of the pitch.
Attack
Emery might opt to go with the attacking pair of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as the duo looks to cause a lot of problems for the Southampton defence and fire the home team to another routine win at the Emirates Stadium.
Aubameyang has a terrific goal-scoring record at home so we can expect him to find the back of the net on Sunday afternoon.
