Sitting in a Giraffe cafe in Heathrow Terminal Five, before a flight up to Newcastle to be with The Management’s family over the Easter period, and my mind is firmly now locked on the FA Cup game tomorrow against Southampton. It’s funny, because all week my mind has been laser-focused on the other South Coast club we’re playing next weekend, but with Arteta and Eckert’s press conferences due to take place today, suddenly this match tomorrow has felt like it has crept up on me.

So, given that I’ve watched very few Championship games this season, what’s in store for The Arsenal tomorrow night then, eh?

Well, it’s a side that I think I’ve already mentioned in recent days, which comes into this game in pretty good form. Unbeaten since January, have taken a scalp in the FA Cup, will be buoyed by their form, and will feel like this one tomorrow is a proper ‘free hit’. Their manager will not play it as I suspect, but i’m sure they are all feeling it.

A quick Google AI-search tells me that they are a possession-based side who will build from the back, and who have suffered a bit this season through silly goals, as a result of their build-up. That’s somewhat evidenced by their goals against tally; they are ninth in the Championship for goals conceded. Their xG against also puts them 14th in the table, so this is a side that has its defensive challenges. Where they make up for it is in goals scored, with only Coventry and Ipswich having scored more. Their xG puts them second in the table too; this isn’t a side who are going to low block us tomorrow.

And that gives me some comfort. On the Same Old Arsenal pod this season, I’ve said a few times that the Premier League has felt like it is a real grind. Teams come up against us and they play the deepest of low blocks, which has been shown in numerous graphs and charts that you and search for on social media. Put simply, Arsenal face the lowest of blocks compared to any other side. But the numbers suggest Southampton won’t do that. Perhaps more importantly, the numbers suggest they can’t do that. So let’s have a proper slugfest between two teams, eh?

Adam Armstrong was their main guy in the attacking equation, but he left for Wolves in the January transfer window, so they’ve been relying on Larin up top, who hasn’t proved to be too prolific. Instead, a lot of their recent goals have been coming from the three men behind them in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Finn Azaz and Kuryu Matsuki getting on the scoresheet a few times in recent weeks. Again, a quick check on playing style for those guys tells me Azaz is their key playmaker, number ten who takes plenty of shots. He’s described as a ‘high-volume shooter’, so tomorrow evening I suspect he’ll be taking opportunities from outside of the box to make a name for himself. Matsuki is a high-energy box-to-boxer who is a relentless presser. I remember Wenger saying years ago that he was shocked at the relentless effort and running of the Japanese footballers, so it appears Matsuki is another one of those in that similar national mould.

So for Arteta today, as he preps his team, he will no doubt have a few dossiers on where they can do us damage, but from a very quick and dirty look from me today, it tells me that, providing we can control the space in front of our back four, we should/could be ok. Nothing is certain in football; that’s why we love the game so much, but even with what we expect to be a relatively heavily rotated squad, you have to be looking at our chances as being high.

That may well also depend on whether we can get our misfiring attack to work. Gabriel Jesus has failed to impress of late, and I think he must surely be in with a shout of starting, so if Southampton are a side that is going to press us and leave space, he will have room to work. He might need rapid wide-forwards around him, so it will be interesting to see what happens about who is available tomorrow. You’d have to think this could be a game for Gabriel Martinelli, but we’ll need to see if the manager thinks his fitness is ok. He scored against Croatia in stoppage time, but he only got on the pitch on 68 minutes, so hopefully that means he’s fine and is as refreshed and ready as possible.

I’ll leave the full review of who I think might play / who I want to play to tomorrow’s blog, because I think a lot will depend on how much information Arteta gives us. I’m not expecting him to give much, but even confirming players are definitely out would be even a little informative.

Have a great Friday boys and girls – catch you all tomorrow.