- Why do some clubs get a good press and others don’t?
- Arsenal’s recent match overload could be a telling factor in the game against Southampton
By Tony Attwood
It seems an awful long time ago, but Arsenal used to play league and cup matches. But then along came the “let’s injure the Arsenal players in international games” approach, which has affected us so savagely.
The latest on the injury front is that we still have 11 (yes eleven, it is not a misprint) players who are less than 100% available, which is most certainly going to give a number of players we don’t normally see, a good chance of playing in the Southampton FA Cup match tomorrow.
As we have already noted, Southampton have been on a superb run in the league of late, and they have also sailed through their FA Cup games, scoring six and conceding three.
| Date | Match | Res | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Jan 2026 | Doncaster Rovers v Southampton | W | 2-3 |
| 14 Feb 2026 | Southampton v Leicester City | W | 2-1 |
| 8 March 2026 | Fulham v Southampton | W | 0-1 |
| Totals | 6-3 |
Arsenal by comparison, have scored 10 and conceded two.
| Date | Match | Res | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Jan 2026 | Portsmouth v Arsenal | W | 1-4 |
| 15 Feb 2026 | Arsenal v Wigan Athletic | W | 4-0 |
| 7 March 2026 | Mansfield Town v Arsenal | W | 1-2 |
| Totals | 10-2 |
The comparison of league positions shows that Arsenal are doing better on both the goal difference and the points despite having played eight games fewer.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Southampton | 39 | 17 | 12 | 10 | 63 | 48 | 15 | 63 |
| 1 | Arsenal | 31 | 21 | 7 | 3 | 61 | 22 | 39 | 70 |
But we do also need to take into account the home and away factor, and with that, we find that having played three more home games than Arsenal, Southampton have knocked in three more goals. They have also conceded one more than Arsenal, picking up four more points than Arsenal along the way. Of course, we still have to take into account the fact that obvioulsy Southampton play second-tier teams, but even so they are clearly no slouches.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3-Ch | Southampton home | 19 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 29 | 14 | 15 | 36 |
| 1-PL | Arsenal away | 16 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 26 | 13 | 13 | 32 |
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Looked at in another way, in a Championship league table calculated on the number of goals scored at home this season, Southampton only come in eighth with 29 goals in 19 games, while on a Premier League league table, looking at it in the same way, Arsenal have 26 goals from 16 games. In terms of goals conceded, Southampton have let in 14 at home in 19 games, while Arsenal have conceded away from home 13 in 16 games.
The fact is the numbers are all fairly close but always come out (if only by small margins) in Arsenal’s favour. However, Arsenal are clearly going to have to put out a reserve team in order to face Southampton, thanks to the utter insanity of having international “call-ups” which the players stupidly accept, right before the FA Cup.
One day, Arsenal players will wake up to the fact of what happens to them when they go and play international football, but obviously, that day has not yet come. So it is going to take us a while to work out exactly what team we can put out, and this set of factors obviously gives Southampton an advantage in that they are playing reserve team players and a disadvantage in that they don’t exactly know who they will face.
It hardly seems relevant given the huge number of Arsenal injuries but Southampton have three of their own… Mads Roerslev at right back with a knee injury, Alex McCathy, a keeper, with a wrist injury and Colin Latin, a centre forward with a hamstring. I doubt that the club have ever been more grateful to a set of international games and their effect on the opposition.
In their last six league games, Southampton have won five and drawn one, scoring 14 and conceding three. Arsenal, on the other hand, in their last six league games have won four and drawn two, scoring 12, and conceding five.
So there is no way that this game can be seen as a straightforward Premier League vs Championship game with the Premier League team coming out on top. Arsenal’s team has been decimated by international injuries, and we are playing away to a team that, although not guaranteed promotion, is looking at least toward the play offs.
But there might be one advantage we’ve not yet touched on, and I’ll look at that in the next post.
