- Arsenal v Southampton: how it might all pan out
- Arsenal v Southampton: Simon Hooper is the ref, which means…
- Arsenal v Southampton. Prognostications and a lack of chickens
This has just appeared in the Guardian:
“EXCLUSIVE: Julian Nagelsmann has now withdrawn from the race to become the new Chelsea head coach — it looks like it’s his final decision.”
And I wonder, is it really a “race”, or is it not a retreat in the opposite direction?
And another one “Managing director of football departs after ruling on Thursday. Chairman Daniel Levy to take charge of new manager search.” So that is sure to turn out ok.
While in the Telegraph: “Man Utd must rid this squad’s rot with deep and swingeing cuts.
Along with ‘Greatest club in the world?’ Daniel Levy has turned Spurs into a joke“
And one I disagree with totally: “If Leicester go down it will be a masterclass in negligence” No it will be the adoption of two systems that were on the very edge of cheating, and not having a fall back position once they were revealed for what they were. There are some details on that here.
Anyway, we have covered much of the forthcoming match, in the articles headlined above, so here are the team predictions…
One certainty is that Ainsley Maitland-Niles is ineligible as he is on loan from Arsenal. For Southampton Che Adams, Mohammed Salisu and Juan Larios are out, and so probably is Tino Livramento.
The Guardian predicts a 2-0 win.
In terms of the team the Standard offers us
Ramsdale;
White, Holding, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Odegaard, Partey, Xhaka;
Saka, Jesus, Martinelli.
Apart from a few shifts in the positional layout the Independent goes with the same
At least Football.London offers us an alternative with
Ramsdale;
White, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney;
Jorginho, Smith Rowe, Odegaard;
Saka, Jesus, Martinelli
their reasoning being as much about resting the odd player ahead of the Manchester City game as anything else.
But as a variant they also offer a line up including Trossard
Ramsdale;
White, Holding, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Partey, Odegaard, Xhaka;
Saka, Trossard, Martinelli
90 min goes down the same route
Sports Mole offer us a 2-1 draw and here we come back to the more conventional
Ramsdale;
White, Holding, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Xhaka, Thomas, Odegaard;
Martinelli, Jesus, Saka
Finally here’s a reminder of the top three and bottom three in the league (adapted from 11v11)
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 31 | 23 | 5 | 3 | 74 | 31 | 43 | 74 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 30 | 22 | 4 | 4 | 78 | 28 | 50 | 70 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 30 | 18 | 5 | 7 | 46 | 37 | 9 | 59 |
| 18 | Nottingham Forest | 31 | 6 | 9 | 16 | 24 | 56 | -32 | 27 |
| 19 | Leicester City | 31 | 7 | 4 | 20 | 41 | 55 | -14 | 25 |
| 20 | Southampton | 31 | 6 | 5 | 20 | 24 | 53 | -29 | 23 |
The expression shooting in your own foot was happening. Ramsdale who has been outstanding this season with a vital mistake that took our confidence away and gave Southampton a boost and put them in a comfortable seat. The good thing is even when 1-3 down we still tried and almost did the impossible and snatched the win in extra time. But it wasn’t to be. Every shot from them almost found the back of the net and we always found a leg or a body in the way. I fear that if we don’t get a result at City they are completely in control and it is out of our hands
Not what we needed but at least we put in a final flurry to gain a point. Advantage firmly to Man City. We now absolutely have to beat them to stand any realistic chance of winning the title
Would everybody please desist from predicting comfortable wins for our team. It could almost be foreseen that things would not work out like that. Freak and unexpected results do happen. It’s never either simple or a foregone conclusion.
A gift to the opponents in the first minute equals a parked bus, time-wasting and the risk of further concessions on breakaways. It happened against Bournemouth and again today. Two fantastic comebacks, but still 2 more dropped points today.
I believe that we are better than Man City and can beat them, but I do not predict that we will
Man City are firmly on course fora n historic treble.
Just shows you that anything can be achieved when you have a net spend of £2bn in 15 years and break the Premier League’s financial fair play rules around 100 times. What a fairytale.
John L
“Would everybody please desist from predicting comfortable wins for our team”
Not everyone was quite so confident John. This is how I saw it back at the beggining of the Month. Okay I didn’t see us dropping points at home to Southampton but as you can see I was under no illusion as to the task ahead:
2 April 2023 at 3:32 PM Nitram says:
Yes we are 8 points ahead, but Man City have a game in hand that they will almost certainly win. That puts them 5 points behind.
We have to go to City, who apart from us, have the best home form in the PL. Despite how well we have been playing there is a distinct possibility we could lose that, even if we play really well. We did that at home and still lost. Man City are a fantastic team, who have seen it, done it, and got the T shirt.
So a City win puts them 2 points behind and we haven’t actually done anything wrong.
We have to go to Liverpool who apart from us have the 2nd best home record in the PL.
We have to go to Newcastle, who apart from us are the 6th best home team in the PL.
There would be no shame in coming away with 2 draws and 2 points from those 2 matches but that still may not be enough.
We have to go to West Ham. Yet another Derby, and a team that are fighting for their Premier League lives.
We have to face Chelsea at home. Still a strong team despite their poor form. And yet another Derby.
Brighton at home is no gi’me! Apart from us they have the 4th best away record in the PL.
None of that is an excuse. Those are the facts. We have a tough run-in. Tougher than Cities. Our biggest advantage is the amount of massive games Man City have, and it will test them that is for sure. But, as we keep getting told, they have the squad. They have the experience. They have the manager.
Home and dry somebody had said. Back then I was pointing out how ridiculous that kind of talk was.