MY ACCOUNT
Southampton are “running out of time” in their bid to avoid relegation from the Premier League, so says Ruben Selles.
Saints sit bottom of the table, four points from safety, ahead of a meeting with league leaders Arsenal at Emirates Stadium on Friday.
Selles took over from Nathan Jones earlier in 2023 and, after initially managing an upturn in fortunes, has now seen his side go winless in their last six games.
“It has been desperate from the very first second,” Selles told reporters. “The only thing is we are running out of time and the games are less and less.
“We had some good performances but we didn’t transform those into points and hopefully we can change and then start to get some points together with some good performances.
“If we play our game and put in the performance that we need, we have options to win the game.
“We have a good team in front [of us] but almost every week we have good teams in front.”
Arsenal threw away a two-goal lead against West Ham last time out, drawing 2-2, with Manchester City now just four points behind the Gunners with a game in hand.
Bukayo Saka missed a penalty just before West Ham’s equaliser, but Mikel Arteta believes the England international can turn that into a positive situation.
Arteta said: “That’s the way he is and he loves responsibility, but he puts a lot on his shoulders.
“If he had any doubt about how much people love, respect and admire him at the club, he had a very warm reaction from everybody. In the end it could be something very positive, everyone acted in an unbelievable way towards him because he deserves it.
“I’ll make sure he takes the next one.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Arsenal – Gabriel Jesus
Gabriel Jesus has scored nine Premier League goals this season – with Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli and Saka already each scoring 10+, this could be just the second season to see four players reach double figures for the Gunners in the competition, after 2012-13 (Santi Cazorla, Olivier Giroud, Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott).
Southampton – James Ward-Prowse
Ward-Prowse has scored nine goals in all competitions for Southampton this season and could reach double figures for the second time in his career following his 11 last term. Six of his nine goals this season have come away from home, with four of those strikes coming in London.
MATCH PREDICTION: ARSENAL WIN
Arsenal have never lost in 23 Premier League home games against Southampton (W16 D7), the most one side has hosted another without ever losing in the competition.
The Gunners are also unbeaten in their last 27 home league games against Southampton (W19 D8) – in their league history, only against Fulham (current run of 30) have they had a longer unbeaten home run.
The side bottom of the table has won just four of their 38 Premier League meetings with the league leaders (D6 L28), losing 14 of their 15 such games away from home (D1).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Arsenal – 67.3 per cent
Southampton – 12 per cent
Draw – 20.7 per cent
