Arsenal will be looking to bounce back from their terribly-timed dip in form with a Premier League clash against Southampton to come this Friday. The Gunners have dropped four points in their last two games surrendering two goal leads against both West Ham and Liverpool.
Title rivals Manchester City have subsequently closed the gap down to just four points at the top ahead of the end of season run-in. Pep Guardiola's men also hold a game in hand over Arsenal with the clash between the two teams at Etihad Stadium arriving on Wednesday, April 26, where the winner can certainly be considered favourites.
Despite their astounding consistency to get results, Arsenal have been continuously questioned throughout the season. It looked as though the Gunners were going to stride towards Premier League glory come May after passing almost every test in front of them, but in the last fortnight the doubters have been somewhat proven right
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The last blip from Arsenal saw them go without a win in three games with the rut ending at Aston Villa thanks to an own goal from former goalkeeper Emi Martinez. Arsenal will therefore be hoping lightening doesn't strike twice when they face Southampton on Friday evening, after two games dropping points, at Emirates Stadium.
The main injury concerns for Mikel Arteta come in defence with key defender William Saliba missing the last few weeks through a back injury. Arteta has previously said he is optimistic he will feature before the end of the season though. "William is still not available," he said before West Ham last week. "He’s progressing well and we’re hopeful that we’ll have him available in the next few weeks. We’ll have to see."
With Arsenal's game as the early kick this match week, Saliba is unlikely to be fit for the game, football.london understands. However, the Frenchman is said to be hopeful of making the game away to City which arrives five days later.
Hopes of an imminent return were boosted when Saliba was spotted working on his recovery via Mohamed Elneny's instagram account, where he posted on his story a video of himself and Saliba working in the club's gym on the bikes in training.
Oleksandr Zinchenko was also missing from the draw against West Ham. "He had a muscular issue at the end of the match at Anfield last week and he struggled in the last few minutes," Arteta revealed. "We assessed him and he wasn’t fit enough to play, and that’s why we have good players like Kieran to replace him."
There is hope the versatile 25-year-old will be fit Friday's game as his absence with a groin injury was precautionary. Elsewhere, Mohamed Elneny and Takehiro Tomiyasu remain as the only long-term absentees.
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