Arsenal v Southampton: Take on hapless Gunners

Arsenal v Southampton
Tuesday December 16, 18:00

Plenty for Gunners fans to worry about

It really hasn't been a good season for Arsenal so far.

The good feeling at the club from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's contract extension has certainly died down and they may have to re-assess their objectives for the league because anything better than a top six finish now seems pretty unlikely.

On Sunday it was a combination of an inexcusable Granit Xhaka sending off and an own goal from Aubameyang that conspired to hand the Gunners yet another defeat. Some fans will feel the three-match ban for the Swiss international isn't necessarily a bad thing.

But the injury to Thomas Pardey and the fact that Lucas Torreira isn't here this season means they're deprived of all of their midfield muscle.

As an aside, to think that they're lacking creativity when they have Mesut Ozil sitting at home every matchday is truly ludicrous, but the club have only themselves to blame.

Saints marching on up the table

The Saints have been excellent, probably the surprise package of the season so far. You look at their team and bar Danny Ings and maybe James Ward-Prowse, there aren't too many players other Premier League clubs would be desperate to poach.

But everyone knows their role, the midfield is hard-working and compact and they have quite different sorts of players in forward areas. Ings missed out on Sunday after returning from injury recently but it's only a matter of time before he starts firing again.

There's no reason why they can't have their best season in a very long time.

Take on misfiring Gunners

Arsenal are 2.3611/8 and if it was just Opta stats you were looking at, that would be a price you'd think was a good one.

After all, Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 25 home league games against Southampton, one of the more remarkable stats you're going to read this week. They also like playing home games on a Wednesday, do Arsenal. They've lost just one of their last 21 played on that day.

But the stats mean little ahead of a game like this where Arsenal are in the dumps and the Saints are high on confidence.

It's 3.3512/5 the away win and 3.5551/20 the draw and a lay of Arsenal looks the way to go.

Leave the over/under 2.5 goals market alone

Things are pretty tight on the over/under 2.5 goals market.

It's 1.845/6 on overs and that's partly because four out of six of Arsenal's home games this season have gone that way. For Saints games it's three from six away from home that have gone 'overs'.

It's two 'unders' and two 'overs' from the last four at the Emirates between these two so we're no closer to trying to work this one out.

Ings scores, both teams score

If I'm not quite sure about the market just mentioned, I'd be a bit more confident in both teams scoring.

It's happened in each of Southampton's last four away games and in half of Arsenal's home games so far. Both teams to score is 6/10 here.

There's a very good choice when it comes to picking the Saints' goalscorer as part of a same-game multi-bet.

Ings has six for the season already which is some going considering he missed three games through injury.

He's got two in his last four against the Gunners, is on penalty duty and may well enjoy himself against one of the league's more vulnerable defences. It's 11/10 Ings scores and the double comes to 2.6313/8.