Southampton: Team news/predicted line-up for Arsenal league clash
By Marc Walker
Southampton will be looking to make it two wins over Arsenal in four days when they host the Gunners at St Mary’s on Tuesday evening.
Saturday saw Saints claim a 1-0 victory when the two sides met in the FA Cup and now both return to Premier League action with two points and one position separating them in the table.
Back in mid-December, Saints claimed a 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium after Theo Walcott’s opening goal was cancelled out by a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang equaliser in the second-half.
Ahead of this latest top-flight meeting though, both teams look set to be without key players.
Walker-Peters and Bertrand out, Redmond returns
Saints have been dealt a blow in the lead up to this game with Ralph Hasenhuttl confirming that key player Kyle Walker-Peters picked up a thigh injury in training. He will join Ryan Bertrand on the sidelines for Tuesday, with the left-back serving a one-match suspension.
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Yan Valery and Jake Vokins are expected to step in for this game after good showings against Shrewsbury in the FA Cup recently.
On his lack of full-backs for this game, Hasenhuttl said:
"“It’s the quad area (for Walker-Peters), he’s got some problems. He only warmed up a little bit today and then felt some problems so had to stop.“After Ryan Bertrand out with his fifth yellow card, we have to find the right solutions at full-back. It’s an important position for our game.”"
Positive news comes with the return to the bench of Nathan Redmond and the potential return of Oriol Romeu and Moussa Djenepo for Saturday’s meeting with Aston Villa.
Hasenhuttl reiterated that Jannik Vestergaard is also making good strides back towards fitness, but Will Smallbone, Nathan Tella, Michael Obafemi and Mohammed Salisu remain out.
Arsenal will be without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with “personal problems” keeping him out of Saturday’s clash with Saints too.
Defender Pablo Mari looks set for a longer spell on the sidelines but midfielder Dani Ceballos could come back into contention for the Gunners this week.
Predicted Saints line-up
Alex McCarthy; Yan Valery, Jan Bednarek, Jack Stephens, Jake Vokins; James Ward-Prowse, Ibrahima Diallo; Stuart Armstrong, Theo Walcott; Danny Ings, Che Adams
McCarthy will step back in ahead of Forster as the first-choice goalkeeper, whilst Valery and Vokins will need to play to their full potentials to keep the Saints backline stable.