Selection Headache For Wenger – Is This Arsenal’s Best XI To Start Against Southampton?

Arsene Wenger’s high flying Gunners travel to the St’ Mary’s stadium to take on a Southampton side who have been very poor off late, winning just two games out of their last six encounters in the Premier League matches. The Gunners are currently atop the table with 51 points and with closest rivals Manchester City and Chelsea not playing till Wednesday night, the London side can significantly open up a four point lead at the top of the table.

Wenger has stated his team cannot drop any points in the quest for their title ambitions and will be looking to bag three points as they travel away from home. Arsenal come into the game at the back of a convincing 4-0 win against Coventry City in the fourth round of the FA Cup and the Emirates faithful will believe they can bag full points from Mauricio Pochettino’s men. So what will be Arsenal’s best possible eleven be on Tuesday? We here at Soccersouls provide our readers with the Gunners’ best eleven.

Goalkeeping:

Wojciech Szczesny in surely to start in goal and the Pole will have to be wary of the significant goal threat that the home side will carry into the encounter. Pochettino’s side will be eager to set the ball rolling in front of the vociferous home faithful and Arsenal will have to deal with immense pressing from the Saints side to muster up full three points at the St’ Mary’s.

Defence:

Kieran Gibbs who started against Coventry might get the nod ahead of Monreal while Bacary Sagna will take his customary role after sitting out in the FA cup fixture. The central defensive partnership will however, be the same with the French-German duo in Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny. Both of them have been solid at the back and if Arsenal are to win tonight, the duo will have to get it right from the word go. The Gunners will have to deal with the trio of Adam Lallana, Jay Rodriguez and Ricky Lambert making forays in the final third.

Midfield:

Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Jack Wilshere is a doubt as he is struggling with an ankle problem from the Coventry game which leaves Mathieu Flamini as the definite option. Mikel Arteta, although has returned from his injury will be short in fitness and Ramsey who started training last week might just get a place alongside Flamini.

Mesut Ozil will start in the number ten role for the Gunners as Santi Cazorla drafting on the left wing. Cazorla, for me has been Arsenal’s best player in the past few matches, the diminutive Spaniard having an enviable passing range from any part of the pitch. Lukas Podolski’s brace against Coventry means an additional selection headache for Wenger. An alternate to which is starting the German on the left and either dropping Cazorla or moving him to the right flank where he could be equally good. Having the trio of Ozil, Cazorla and Podolski in the same team, fit and ready to play will only give night mares to the manager and you cannot certainly predict the possible line-up that he would go for.

Adding to his troubles, the likes of Gnabry and Oxlade-Chamberlain are knocking his doors.

Strike Force:

As Arsene Wenger has insisted that Arsenal remain unlikely to make any signings this January unless “something exceptional” emerges in the final days of the transfer window. This means Olivier Giroud will again start up front leading the attack on his own. The Saints will give Arsenal a tough test of their title credentials as anything less than three points for the visitors would leave the door open for City and Chelsea to capitalise on any slip up.