Except for the first few minutes in the first half, Southampton looked an unbalanced side as compared to Brentford, which was unlikely to take some points from this away fixture. Moreover, coming on the back of a 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town, manager Russell Martin made two lineup changes as well with Maxwel Cornet and Lesley Ugochukwu replacing Cameron Archer and Adam Lallana. The decision to bring Ugochukwu in the starting lineup to give a much needed rest to Lallana before facing Arsenal, seemed a wise decision but it didn't work out well for the Saints.
The on-loan Chelsea star played the first half but managed to complete only 11 out of 16 passes and gave away possession several times throughout the match. Moreover, Ugochukwu couldn't help the Saints win the ball possession quickly while defending and made a defensive mistake to give Semenyo much space to score the third goal. His underwhelming display led Russell Martin to substitute him with Ross Stewart at the beginning of the second half.
New signing unlikely to start against Arsenal after underwhelming Bournemouth display
This match was a good opportunity for the 20-year-old box-to-box midfielder to give an all around display in the midfield to get some playing time against Arsenal in the away match. However, his struggles have highlighted the need to bring experienced midfielder Adam Lallana back to the starting lineup, who has been a quality signing for Russell Martin’s side despite being 36-years-old. Also, the Bournemouth match has shown how much the Saints need to improve defensively in order to take a draw from this match.
Arsenal are Premier League title favourites alongside Manchester City and will create a lot of chances against Southampton. Thus, the Saints need to give a rock solid defensive performance and should return to their three midfielders formation with Adam Lallana and Joe Aribo in a defensive role and Mateus Fernandes as the creative playmaker. Moreover, it remains to be seen whether a ball playing defender such as Armel Bella-Kotchap is given some playing time, who defended well against Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League last season.