EPL: Saints visit Gunners

Arsenal vs. Southampton
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Kick off: 8:45pm

After dealing with in-form Burnley in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday, Arsenal welcome another side enjoying a purple patch on Tuesday (tonight) when Southampton visit the Emirates.
The visitors will be full of confidence given their recent run and the fact that they thumped the Gunners in the reverse just over a month ago on Boxing Day.
Things have not been going the Gunners’ way of late in the Premier League, but they put that behind them on Saturday by winning in the FA Cup for the 14th match in a row.
Arsene Wenger’s side have won the competition the last two years and a record 12 times overall, and they will be even more confident of making it three on the bounce after a favourable fifth-round draw.
With all the so-called big boys in the pot, Arsenal were drawn at home against Championship side Hull City. It is the third season in a row that the Tigers and Gunners will meet, with Arsenal winning 3-2 in extra time in the 2014 final before seeing them off 2-0 in last year’s third round.
The recent defeat to Chelsea, in which Per Mertesacker was sent off for a professional foul, ended a nine-match unbeaten run at home in the league since the opening-day defeat to West Ham.
The Saints were not in action over the weekend after losing at home to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup third round, so today it will have been nine days since their last match, and what a result it was too.
Ronald Koeman’s side went to Old Trafford and frustrated Manchester United for the majority before snatching a late winner through Charlie Austin, who came off the bench and powered home a header for the most memorable of debuts. That goal means that Southampton have scored a league-high 10 headed goals so far in 2015-16 and they have also fired in the most crosses from open play this term – it should be a recipe for success with Austin wasting no time to break his duck.
Victory at Old Trafford made it three wins and three clean sheets in a row for the Saints, who are up to eighth and just four points behind Man Utd in fifth.
Austin has been the club’s only new arrival in January and it looks set to remain that way on deadline day today.
The Saints’ return to form and new-found defensive stability has, perhaps unsurprisingly, coincided with the return of Fraser Forster after 10 months out.
The goalkeeper has had no problem finding his feet and both he and Jack Butland look set to push Joe Hart all the way for England’s No.1 jersey at Euro 2016.

Arsenal possible starting lineup: Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Walcott, Ozil, Sanchez, Giroud.
Southampton possible starting lineup: Forster, Cedric, Van Dijk, Fonte, Bertrand, Wanyama, Clasie, Tadic, Mane, Targett, Austin.