Arsenal’s match on Friday night looks like a perfect opportunity to get their title charge back on track.
The Gunners have stumbled in their past two matches, blowing two-goal leads against Liverpool and West Ham to draw 2-2 on both occasions. It means their lead at the top of the Premier League over Manchester City stands at four points instead of eight.
Victory on Friday, however, would stretch it to seven ahead of Wednesday’s potential title decider between the two teams at Etihad Stadium.
Arsenal should be confident of doing exactly that, because their own troubles are nothing in comparison to Southampton’s. The visitors are bottom of the League, four points from safety, and are winless in their last six games. The visitors also have a miserable record against Arsenal, winning just two of their 45 League games away to the Gunners, the most recent in 1987.
Arteta is taking nothing for granted, though, especially with Wednesday’s trip to the Etihad on the horizon.
“That’s it, that’s the conversation we had,” he said. “Nobody is talking about what is going to happen next Wednesday. We have to become really boring to everybody and be very repetitive, just focus on what we have to do today, and that’s it.”
Arsenal have not had many “boring” wins recently and, even if Friday is a game where the Gunners’ attackers will want to fill their boots, one suspects Arteta would settle for a controlled performance and a clean sheet.
A key part of Arsenal’s success in the first part of this season was their defensive solidity, however it has waned recently. The absence of centre-back William Saliba, who will miss Friday’s game with a back problem, has contributed to that, but there were signs of a decline even before he got injured during the middle of last month.
In the first 18 League games of the season, Arsenal conceded only 14 goals and kept nine clean sheets. In the last 13, they have leaked 17 goals and kept just three clean sheets. It is a problem Arteta is well aware of and something he will want to address in the final seven games, particularly with Arsenal knowing they face City and the seemingly unstoppable Erling Haaland in five days’ time.
There were signs of Arsenal’s defensive decline even before William Saliba got injured
Asked yesterday if his side are conceding soft goals, Arteta said: “Especially the last two goals we gave away, yes, very unhappy with that. It’s something we have to do much better to win games. Regardless of who plays, we have to defend those situations better.”
Southampton should provide Arsenal with the opportunity to restore some defensive confidence, given their struggles going forward. They have failed to score in seven of their last 12 League matches and have managed 24 goals all season, the joint worst in the division.
Arsenal’s defence could be boosted by the return of Oleksandr Zinchenko on Friday. The left-back missed Sunday’s draw at West Ham with a groin problem, but he has trained this week. His return should help Arsenal dominate possession as they try to break down Southampton. The visitors are expected to sit deep and try to frustrate the Gunners, with the plan being to hit them on the counter.
Other than Zinchenko coming into the side for Kieran Tierney, Arteta is likely to stick with the same team which drew at West Ham. The Spaniard has thrown his support behind Bukayo Saka after his penalty miss last week and he is another player who will want to take confidence from Friday’s game.
“Experiences help obviously,” said Arteta. “We go again.”
