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Confirmed line-ups: Southampton vs Arsenal – Nketiah starts, Laca ruled out

By on April 16, 2022

Arsenal need to get back to winning ways against Southampton at St Mary’s on Saturday afternoon.

We’ve been dealt another blow with Alexandre Lacazette ruled out of the game today due to covid. The Frenchman was unable to train all last week but Mikel Arteta had hoped he would be available today. However, Laca is ruled out so Eddie Nketiah is handed a rare start in the Premier League.

Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli will support Nketiah in the Arsenal attack so Nicolas Pepe has to settle for a place on the bench once again. Emile Smith Rowe is also named among the substitutes with Martin Odegaard keeping his place in the attacking midfield role. In fact, Odegaard captains Arsenal today’s in the absence of Lacazette.

Nuno Tavares is recalled to start at left-back in a huge show of support from Arteta. The youngster has struggled badly in recent outings so let’s hope for a positive display from Tavares this afternoon.

Cedric Soares continues at right-back in the absence of Takehiro Tomiyasu while Ben White starts alongside Gabriel at the heart of defence once again.

These are the line-ups for the game:

Arsenal

Ramsdale; Cedric, White, Gabriel, Tavares; Lokonga, Xhaka; Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli; Nketiah

Subs: Leno, Smith Rowe, Holding, Pepe, Elneny, Azeez, Ogungbo, Swanson, Hutchinson.

Southampton

Forster, Valery, Bednarek, Lyanco, Walker-Peters, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Perraud, S.Armstrong, Elyounoussi, Broja.

Subs: Caballero, Stephens, Livramento, Salisu, Redmond, Tella, A.Armstrong, Adams, Long.