Read our match report from St Mary’s:
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That was a totally different Southampton, and they punished a hastily patched-up Arsenal, who looked particularly frail at the back. Neither Stephan Lichtsteiner, the returning Laurent Koscielny nor Bernd Leno covered themselves in glory. Plenty of food for thought for Unai Emery. For Saints, Danny Ings was a real livewire, and scored two beautiful headers. In the end it was Charlie Austin who popped up with the winner, a player many have said will not fit Ralph Hasenhüttl’s high-pressing style. He made the difference, though. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg played a cute through ball into Long for the winner, and the captain seemed to relish the responsibility of wearing the armband. Alex McCarthy made some key saves, while Redmond was busy before being forced off.
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Free pints and three points for Southampton. Danny Ings and Charlie Austin try to sum it up. “The gaffer’s brought in new ideas to not just the first-team changing room but the whole club,” Austin says. “A new manager comes in with new ideas, all of the sudden the lads get a bit of a rocket and start expressing themselves and it just didn’t work under Mark Hughes, we just didn’t get the right result. We have got a big Christmas coming up, with Huddersfield and West Ham here. We have to try and take six points from those.” As for Ings, he adds: “As a club we know the position we have put ourselves in, but we have shown today that we can really turn it around. We are moving in the right direction.”
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Full-time: Southampton 3-2 Arsenal
Ralph Hasenhüttl bounces on to the pitch. That’s lift-off! The new era is very much under way at Southampton. Arsenal’s 22-match unbeaten comes to a grinding halt on the south coast. Charlie Austin’s late winner lifts Southampton out of the bottom three, while Arsenal stay fifth, three points behind Chelsea, who have just wrapped up victory over Brighton in Sussex. It was a game teeming with great goals – and two wicked deflections – but when it mattered most, Austin had a cool head to apply a fine finish, heading in Shane Long’s lofted cross.
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90+5 min: Shane Long is booked for a flailing arm on Monreal.
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90+4 min: A wry smile from Valery, after shielding off a late Arsenal challenge on the byline. McCarthy will boot the goal-kick upfield.
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90+4 min: Stuart Armstrong is replaced by Tyreke Johnson, the youngster making his debut.
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90+3 min: Arsenal probe down the right through Lacazette, but Guendouzi’s header from the forward’s cross is wayward.
90+2 min: McCarthy gathers a deflected Mkhitaryan strike to much glee. Saints are seconds away from only their third league win this season.
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90 min: There will be five added minutes.
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89 min: A rendition of “Stand up if you love the Saints” rings around St Mary’s. Arsenal look shot. Armstrong has a free-kick, but will take an age to take it.
88 min: Arsenal try to break, but Ozil cannot read Lacazette’s dummy after more good work by Mkhitaryan. Southampton take their time to welly a free-kick upfield. Long does brilliantly to control Hojbjerg’s ball and then win a throw-in in the very corner of pitch.
87 min: Lacazette wins Arsenal a corner, but Yoshida powers the ball away. St Mary’s, for the first time in a long time, is rocking.
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GOAL! Southampton 3-2 Arsenal (Austin, 85)
Leno cannot reach Long’s stood-up cross, and Austin nods in. Brilliant, unselfish work by one substitute and a fine, composed finish by another. It was a simple floated cross by Long, but Leno made a mess of it, gifting Austin the chance to head into an empty net.
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83 min: Koscielny meets Ozil’s corner, but he slices his header! It drops inside the six-yard box but Arsenal cannot force it goalwards. Moments before, Arsenal got all intricate, with Ozil and Torreira interlinking beautifully and simultaneously causing panic.
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82 min: Emery and Hasenhüttl are both getting drenched on the touchline, furiously trying to conjure up a winner. Arsenal have won more points in the final 10 minutes of matches than any other side. Can they?
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80 min: Leno punches clear, and Aubameyang leads the charge on the counter! The big striker does well, funnelling down the right before playing in Mesut Ozil on the opposite flank. He dinks a ball into the box, and the legs of Aubameyang are lurking at the back post, but he cannot make any meaningful contact with the cross.
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79 min: An end-to-end finish at St Mary’s, as Southampton win another corner. The last one didn’t work out too badly at all.
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77 min: Arsenal break forward, with Aubameyang sliding a lovely ball across the box, but Vestergaard crowbars the ball away from the grasp of Lacazette. When Arsenal win a free-kick out of the second phase, McCarthy makes a superb stop to keep the ball out of the net, denying Lacazette’s glanced header. The flag was up, but the Southampton goalkeeper was not to know.
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75 min: Shane Long scores – but the goal is disallowed! Sian Massey-Ellis, the lineswoman, flags early, and the Southampton celebrations are short-lived. The corner was whipped in, and it was an umarked Maya Yoshida who powered a header a goal, forcing Leno into an instinctive save. As Yoshida headed at goal, Long was offside and when he tapped in, the flag was raised. Ralph Hasenhüttl looks particularly deflated. Southampton thought they had a winner!
74 min: Matt Targett’s throw causes more problems than it should, with Maitland-Niles, filling in at right-back heading back into danger. Austin then makes life difficult for Koscielny, who hacks the ball away for a corner ..
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73 min: Maitland-Niles replaces Lichtsteiner.
72 min: Xhaka has a nibble at Long, and Saints win a free-kick a good 35 yards from goal. But they waste it, and instead supply Arsenal with the chance to counter. Down on the touchline, Unai Emery is pounding the chest of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, revving up the young Arsenal midfielder who is about to come on.
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71 min: Danny Ings will not score a hat-trick this afternoon, because Charlie Austin has just jumped off the bench to replace him. Austin will the lead the line, while Shane Long is operating out wide on the right.
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70 min: Armstrong chops down Lichtsteiner and Arsenal win a free-kick on halfway. Mesut Ozil is on, but looks absolutely freezing. He will have warmed up, won’t he?
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69 min: Alex Iwobi is replaced by Mesut Ozil.
67 min: McCarthy plays his team-mates into sixes and sevens at the back, rushing out of goal and not claiming the ball. Aubameyang tried and failed to fashion a clear shooting opportunity, before Iwobi pinged in a dangerous cross. His ball actually squeezes underneath the Southampton goalkeeper, but he just about did enough, grabbing the ball at the second time of asking.
66 min: Arsenal attempt to raid down the right through Mkhitaryan and Lacazette but a handball stifles their attack. Southampton have not exactly gone to pieces since that goal, but they are yet to truly test Bernd Leno. Meanwhile, Emery has just appeared to give Mesut Ozil the nod on the substitutes bench.
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64 min: Valery makes a clean sliding challenge on Nacho Monreal. The Saints faithful enjoy it, as you’d expect. Can either team find a winner? Over in Sussex, Solly March has pulled a goal back for Brighton at home to Chelsea.
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63 min: Arsenal have become a little pedestrian. Koscielny has been in the wars on his comeback, this time taking a whack from his own team-mate, Stephan Lichtsteiner who was trying to rob the ball away from Shane Long.
62 min: Here comes Shane Long! He’s on for Nathan Redmond.
61 min: Targett eventually swings in the free-kick, but Koscielny heads clear. Southampton look to sustain the pressure down the left.
59 min: Redmond gets the better of Koscielny, and the Arsenal defender tugs at his shirt and pulls him down. A cynical challenge, one that earns a booking. Redmond requires a dash of treatment. Southampton have a free-kick, 25 yards from goal.
58 min: Ings is still going up top, but he’s the only outlet for Southampton. Redmond has been shackled more this half. Arsenal seem to find a different gear when the clock restarts for the second half. Seconds later, a half-chance for Targett goes begging after Leno fails to reach an arrowed cross.
56 min: Koscielny and Lichtsteiner double-up on Nathan Redmond, with Saints guilty of getting sloppy. Arsenal seize possession and stride forward once more. Only one team look like scoring now.
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55 min: Lichtsteiner wants a foul after falling under the challenge of Oriol Romeu, but has to make do with a corner. Torreira swings it in, but Xhaka’s volley from distance is blocked by Southampton. Arsenal go again!
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54 min: Iwobi skies an effort! Aubameyang is played in down the left channel in acres. He dances inside, before rolling the ball back for Iwobi to have a go. He attempted the Thierry Henry-bend-into-the-far-corner but got it all wrong. A big chance for Arsenal to take the lead for the first time at St Mary’s.
GOAL! Southampton 2-2 Arsenal (Mkhitaryan, 53)
It’s a wicked deflection, but Arsenal pull level. Romeu is hounded out by Lacazette on the edge of the box. He finds Mkhitaryan, who tries his luck and the ball cannons off Vestergaard, wrong-footing Alex McCarthy and rolling into the net.
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51 min: The ball keeps coming back at Southampton at the moment, with Arsenal attempting to assert some authority on this game.
50 min: Bednarek clatters Lacazette, and is booked for his efforts.
49 min: Torreira does superbly on halfway, robbing Armstrong of the ball and plenty of dignity in one fell swoop. Southampton were knocking it about neatly, but Torreira had had enough and stole in to kickstart another move forward.
48 min: Southampton are pressing like no tomorrow, wooing home supporters with every next charge towards an Arsenal player. Monreal’s back up and moving, and Aubameyang in the mood, alongside Lacazette up front.
47 min: McCarthy spreads himself to deny Aubameyang! It was a lovely intricate pass by Mkhitaryan to the striker, and the Southampton goalkeeper makes himself big, as they say in the business. And now Arsenal have another defender grounded, with Nacho Monreal pulling all sorts of faces.
46 min: Koscielny, perhaps understandably, seems a yard or two off the pace. He dallies and an early straightforward ping upfield from out the back is blocked by a ravenous Ings. Arsenal break forward regardless.
46 min: Arsenal get things back under way at St Mary’s. Alexandre Lacazette is on for Unai Emery’s side, in place of the injured Hector Bellerin. That will surely mean a change of system too, a move back to a back four.
Looks like Alexandre Lacazette could be on at half-time ...
Down at Brighton, Chelsea are cruising 2-0, with Eden Hazard doubling their lead. At St Mary’s, Danny Ings’s header before the interval extends a pointless but intriguing half-time stat: Arsenal haven’t led at the break in any of their 17 Premier League games this season (D12 L5). They tend to be a different beast in the second half, though.
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Half-time: Southampton 2-1 Arsenal
Two marvellous Danny Ings headers are the difference at the break, with the Saints striker scoring either side of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s leveller. Ralph Hasenhüttl, the man nicknamed “Alpen Klopp” in Germany will be delighted, and has had to rein in the celebrations. The Mauricio Pochettino-Ronald Koeman high-press is very much back in town, while Arsenal defensively have shown shades of defensive vulnerability. Pascal Cygan and Igor Stepanovs have both been mentioned, which speaks volumes.
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45+2 min: Targett gifts the ball to Mkhitaryan but Arsenal fail to profit, with Aubameyang running into trouble. Targett, in fairness, is quick to hold his hands up and apologise, after buying a foul out of the Armenian a moment later.
45+1 min: Danny Ings is causing havoc for Arsenal. The Saints striker is running round like a man possessed; he’s supercharged and very much setting the tempo.
45 min: There will be two added minutes at St Mary’s. Bellerin is down receiving treatment, and looks set to be replaced.
GOAL! Southampton 2-1 Arsenal (Ings, 44)
Saints are back in front! Ings loops a header into the far corner beyond Leno. It was a result of a fine counterattack, after McCarthy snatched Bellerin’s cross away from the grasp of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Redmond, in the end, is played in on the right and his floated cross is nodded home by Ings. A lovely goal.
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42 min: Armstrong plays the corner short to Redmond, and his effort is comfortably cleared by Arsenal. The visitors break on the counter through Alex Iwobi and suddenly Southampton have some defending to do.
41 min: Saints win a corner, after good work by Valery down the right.
39 min: Romeu hands over the baton to Armstrong on the edge of the box. He glides past a couple of Arsenal shirts, but his shot is a daisy-cutter. That’s no problem for Bernd Leno. Arsenal look to kick on again.
38 min: Arsenal are knocking the ball around nicely, diffusing the Saints tempo a little. The last time they had a spell like this, they ended up with the ball in the net. They have struggled to create chances. Southampton, though, have been a handful down the left flank, with Matt Targett and Stuart Armstrong proving tricky customers.
35 min: Koscielny leaves Ings in a heap, but play is waved on. The Arsenal skipper got his big toe to the ball, but they cannot make the most of it on the counter.
34 min: Henrikh Mkhitaryan has scored as many Premier League goals for Arsenal (five) in 25 games as he did for Manchester United in 39. The midfielder tries to shirk a challenge from Romeu but runs into Hojbjerg. Saints, after a week of high-intensity training, are certainly getting into the faces of Unai Emery’s side.
32 min: Romeu gets tight to Torreira – too tight. Arsenal win a free-kick on halfway. Arsenal are trying to get on the front-foot, into the driving seat if you will.
30 min: Saints win a free-kick 25 yards from goal. It’s floated in by Matty Targett but Vestergaard, the 6ft6in defender, heads over. Meanwhile, Chelsea lead in Sussex, with Pedro poking Maurizio Sarri’s side ahead at Brighton.
29 min: Arsenal almost double their lead! Guendouzi links with Torreira, laying the ball on a plate for Aubameyang but Saints somehow clear. It was a goal-saving intervention from Jan Bednarek, the Southampton defender. Ralph Hasenhüttl will not need reminding, but no team has squandered fewer points from winning positions than the 12 Southampton have passed up in the Premier League this season.
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GOAL! Southampton 1-1 Arsenal (Mkhitaryan, 28)
The Armenian heads Arsenal level at St Mary’s. Nacho Monreal darts towards the byline after being slipped in by Alex Iwobi, and the Spaniard pulls a cross back for Mkhitaryan, who arrives late into the box unmarked. He diverts the ball into the bottom corner beyond Alex McCarthy with a cushioned header, bursting the Saints bubble somewhat. That’s his third goal of the season.
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25 min: Guendouzi plays a hospital pass for Torreira on halfway, and Hojbjerg drives forward after turning over possession. Saints are enjoying themselves. On the touchline, Emery’s scrunching up his face. He looks concerned.
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22 min: Ings wriggles away from Guendouzi and the Southampton striker just nudges the ball into a yard of space before unleashing a stinging effort at goal. Leno has to be alert, and makes the save. Ings looks pumped up. Arsenal have not really been at the races, that Aubameyang chance aside.
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21 min: Arsenal haven’t been too convincing, and have been punished at the first real opportunity. It was a wonderful cross in by Targett, and a quality finish by Ings. More often than not, the striker has been the difference for Saints when he has been fit. This is his first start since 10 November.
GOAL! Southampton 1-0 Arsenal (Ings, 20)
A bullet header. Matt Targett whips a beautiful ball in from the left, Koscielny is caught on his heels and the Saints striker buries the ball into the bottom corner. St Mary’s erupts but, after a quick skirt down the touchline, Ralph Hasenhüttl thinks better of it and urges calm in his technical area.
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17 min: Leno saves! Arsenal get sloppy, but then so does Danny Ings, back in the starting lineup for Southampton. The striker’s first touch lets him down and he actually catches Laurent Koscielny by failing to control the ball. For a second, there is panic but the Frenchman is soon back up and moving. His first task is to fend off Redmond, who leads the charge forward, passing into Armstrong, who wraps his right foot around the ball and forces Leno into a smart stop.
15 min: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, the Saints skipper, plays a searching crossfield ball for Valery, but there is Nacho Monreal to cut it out. Southampton are beginning to up the tempo a little, much to the delight of the home support. Arsenal have been very much stop-start, with Guendouzi their most lively source so far.
13 min: Redmond has been busy. He bounces inside, and with Koscielny and Lichtsteiner backing off, he tries his luck. It’s a relatively tame curling effort but the deflection takes it away for a corner, which Arsenal eventually clear after a mix-up between Leno and Lichtsteiner. Arsenal have failed to pick up Redmond’s surging runs through the middle. His end product has too often eluded him, but there is no doubting the pace with which he can charge.
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12 min: Redmond’s back on after a quick bit of treatment, but it’s all gone a bit stale at St Mary’s. Arsenal are presumably priming themselves for another incisive break forward.
10 min: Redmond is limping for Southampton. He goes to ground, and on comes the Saints physio. It was after a challenge on Xhaka. A stoppage in play allows Henrikh Mkhitaryan to change his shirt, straight swap for a short sleeve.
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8 min: Saints pour forward down the middle, again through Redmond. He uses Vestergaard as a battering ram to keep Arsenal’s biting impromptu midfield of Torreira and Xhaka at bay, but they quickly run out of ideas and the ball is shackled out of play.
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6 min: Southampton, understandably, look a little nervy. Redmond just broke through the middle, but Matt Targett’s early ball is poor.
5 min: McCarthy makes a strong save to deny Aubameyang! Guendouzi dinks an inviting ball over the top of the Southampton back line, and the Arsenal striker races on to it, evading Maya Yoshida, who is caught in no man’s land. Aubameyang controls neatly with his first touch before blasting at goal. McCarthy is equal to it, and Saints clear the resulting corner. Southampton fell asleep at the back. A big chance for Arsenal.
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3 min: Vestergaard cuts out Koscielny’s hopeful ball forward, and Saints fly down the right but Redmond’s ball is hacked away by Arsenal. Southampton are trying to assert their control of the game but, right on cue, Yoshida gifts the ball to Iwobi. Yan Valery, who had a torrid time at Cardiff, makes amends.
2 min: Unai Emery is up on his feet, barking instructions to his team. Torreira, as you would expect, is sweeping up nicely in front of an unorthodox back three of Koscielny, Lichtsteiner and Xhaka.
1 min: Southampton make an aggressive start – a little too keen. Redmond fouls Guendouzi on halfway, earning Arsenal an early free-kick. It comes straight back at them, though.
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Peeeeeeeeeeeeep!
A standing ovation to welcome Ralph Hasenhüttl, whose Southampton side get things started. Granit Xhaka lines up in the middle of a back three for the visitors.
The teams out on to the pitch at St Mary’s. There are a few pyrotechnics to welcome Ralph Hasenhüttl and co.
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“The jury’s still out on them for me,” says Roy Keane of Arsenal, adding he still holds fears for them defensively. “The winter months are coming up, and that’s when it’s a test for these lads.” Arsenal have got their intensity back, are certainly into their stride but, some supporters are wary of getting carried away. “Any Arsenal fan will tell you with the glass-half-empty in hand, what’s extraordinary about [their run] it is that they’ve managed to not lose when playing astonishingly sloppily; only supreme inefficiency by opponents has spared them so far,” emails Charles Antaki. “Even struggling Southampton may eventually break that run of luck. Yes, I know this is a glum view. But experience has shown ...”
Héctor Bellerín will do well to top this No 2’s performance:
Arsenal are on an extraordinary run – but is there actually quite a lot of pressure on Unai Emery to keep the good times rolling? With Tottenham winning on Saturday, the gap to Spurs is back to five points at kick-off, while Manchester City and Liverpool are streets ahead in terms of the league table. Chelsea start the day above them, admittedly on goal difference, and Emery has said he needs more from his squad if they are to gatecrash the top-four party. “I think we are doing our way and improving, but the reality is that we need more,” Emery says. “Our ideas and work with the players is to learn together. All of us can give everybody new ideas. I think the players are open to listening to us about our new tactical work with our analysis in videos. We need to do this work quickly.”
Arsenal confirm Sead Kolasinac is missing with a thigh injury, hence Emery’s switch to a more rigid back four at St Mary’s. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alex Iwobi and Nacho Monreal get the nod, while Mesut Özil is benched once more. Meanwhile, Hasenhüttl knows Saints must cut off the supply line to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with the striker a familiar foe from his Bundesliga days:
He has a lot of qualities and therefore we have to work as a team. It will depend how much pressure [we put] on guys that want to pass to him. Maybe don’t give too much time to these guys to put the perfect pass then it’s easier to defend his qualities – his speed, his heading in the box. That is our goal to defend him and the rest of the team. But he doesn’t need a lot of chances to score, as everyone knows.”
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Ralph Hasenhüttl has gone a little David Brent in the match-day programme. He says his Southampton “never lose – we either win or we learn”. You’ve charmed me. It sounds good, but Saints really have precious little time to muck about: they badly need results. At Cardiff last weekend, they were pretty underwhelming, with little sign of any often talked-up ‘new manager bounce’. They are only off the bottom of the table thanks to Fulham’s horrendous defensive record. Arsenal, meanwhile, are purring.
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Team news news: Laurent Koscielny, who started his comeback from injury down the road at Fratton Park earlier this month, is back at the heart of Unai Emery’s defence. There are four changes from the Arsenal team that edged past Huddersfield, with Lichtsteiner expected to lineup at centre-half alongside Koscielny. For Southampton, Ralph Hasenhüttl welcomes back Danny Ings with open arms, while there is room for youngster Tyreke Johnson on the bench. Maya Yoshida is back in defence, while Jannik Vestergaard keeps his place despite his costly error at Cardiff.
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The teams!
Southampton: McCarthy; Valery, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Yoshida, Targett; Højbjerg, Romeu, Armstrong; Redmond, Ings
Subs: Hoedt, Long, Davis, Austin, Ward-Prowse, Gunn, Johnson
Arsenal: Leno; Bellerín, Lichtsteiner, Koscielny, Monreal; Torreira, Xhaka, Guendouzi; Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, Iwobi
Subs: Cech, Elneny, Ramsey, Lacazette, Özil, Maitland-Niles, Nketiah
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Preamble
Prost! By offering 19,000 season-ticket holders a drinks voucher at St Mary’s this afternoon Ralph Hasenhüttl may have inadvertently bought the biggest round of his life, but Southampton supporters may require more than just a stiff drink should they extend their winless run to 15 matches. In Unai Emery’s Arsenal, they face a formidable force, a team bopping and weaving their way through matches, unbeaten in their last 22. It is a match-up between a team that has forgotten how to lose against one that cannot help but win. Hasenhüttl, who was accompanied by assistant Danny Röhl this week ramped up training, with Saints enduring a hectic week, with their day off cancelled following defeat in south Wales last weekend. And the Austrian hopes fans will get to toast only a second home league victory in the past year for the struggling Saints, who are currently 19th.”Everyone who knows me knows that I’m a guy who always brings everyone in our boat to row with us,” Hasenhüttl said. “You have to build up your credit. It’s like an account, if you always take money off sometimes it’s off (empty), so now we have to put money on the account.” The return of Danny Ings might help, with the Southampton striker welcomed back to training with open arms this week, while Cedric Soares and Shane Long are both back fit.
Kick-off: 1.30pm (GMT)
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