Arsenal's defensive crisis points to goals in tussle with Southampton

Premier League
Sky Sports Premier League & Main Event, 1.30pm Sunday

Arsenal are unbeaten in 22 matches but if they are to extend that run to 23 the Gunners will have to overcome a defensive crisis.

Unai Emery is struggling to find enough defenders for Sunday's game, so it's probably just as well that Southampton are the opposition - although even Saints should find a path to goal at St Mary's.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi are suspended and Rob Holding and Konstantinos Mavropanos are injured, leaving Laurent Koscielny as the only recognised centre-back available.

Koscielny, who last made a Premier League appearance in April and has a history of injury problems, has played just 157 minutes of football this term and Emery has said the Frenchman is no certainty to start the Southampton game.

And whether he does or not, the best bet could be to take the slight odds-on for both teams to score in a match featuring over 2.5 goals.

It seems probable that Stephan Lichtsteiner and Nacho Monreal, full-backs by trade, will fill the wider centre-back berths, which is far from ideal, while this is a bet which has collected in all seven of Arsenal's Premier League away matches this season anyway.

Emery may believe the best way to cope with his hefty absentee list is to go on the attack even more than normal with Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang two obvious threats.

Southampton, with only one Premier League win this season and just two at home in 2018, have shown precious little evidence they are capable of nullifying the kind of arsenal in the Gunners' ranks.

Mark Hughes failed to find the right defensive balance and replacement boss Ralph Hasenhuttl saw first hand just how difficult the job will be during last Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Cardiff.

There has been no continuity to Southampton's defensive play this season with the club changing between a back three and four with eight different centre-back combinations used in 16 top-flight games.

Jannick Vestergaard's individual error proved costly at Cardiff, although Hasenhuttl has spent the week working on the collective as well as brutal training sessions to boost fitness levels.

The players were called in on their day off as Hasenhuttl attempts to drum in his ideas, which include being more aggressive in winning the ball back from the opposition.

Southampton's problem has been scoring goals and yet in that regard Hasenhuttl will be hoping for a bit more luck. Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was man of the match in their 3-1 defeat at Wembley, while Saints had two big penalty shouts turned down at Cardiff.

The expected-goals metric suggests Saints have left a league-high seven goals on the table. Maybe playing against a weakened defence is just the stroke of good fortune they need to start taking those chances.

Recommendation
Over 2.5 goals and both teams to score
1pt 20-23 BoyleSports

Bet on this match on Soccerbase.com

Team news
Southampton
Defenders Ryan Bertrand and Jack Stephens are injured, but Danny Ings, Shane Long and Cedric Soares could all return.

Arsenal
Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Danny Welbeck and midfielder Emile Smith Rowe are unavailable.

Key stat
Arsenal have not led at half-time in any Premier League match this season.

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