Southampton: Saints handed boost as Mkhitaryan suffers injury
By Chris Hughes
Mark Hughes’ Southampton side have been dealt a positive hand ahead of this Sunday’s tricky game with Arsenal.
The Gunners played out to a comfortable 4-1 win last night over CSKA Moscow in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final – but all was not positive.
Armenian winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan suffered a worrying injury, with Arsene Wenger now confirming that he will miss this Sunday’s game against the Saints.
Southampton go into the game desperate for points but even so will be massive underdogs, having not beaten a member of the top six in the league since April 2016.
However, the Armenian’s creative abilities are unquestionable despite his fall from grace at Manchester United, and his absence will be a massive dent to the Gunners’ hopes of victory.
Granted, the London side still have the ever-creative Mesut Ozil but if they’re forced to play solely through him things could become one-dimensional.
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Southampton go into the game this Sunday occupying 18th and sitting two points adrift of safety, albeit with a game in hand.
The Saints’ game against Swansea has now eventually been rearranged for early May and alongside the game against Bournemouth, was seen as the only winnable remaining fixtures on their calender.
However as proven with the games prior against the likes of West Ham and Newcastle, nothing can be taken for granted with Southampton this season.
Even if the Saints do win both they’d logically still only have a low-30’s points tally meaning they need to produce a good performance this weekend. Last time out was poor but Hughes’ side proved against Wigan that they can rally the troops when needed.
With Arsenal now without one of their most creative attackers the Saints have to go on the offensive and try and knick it.