It will be interesting to see the team Mikel Arteta picks when Arsenal welcome Southampton to the Emirates Stadium on Friday evening. The Gunners have dropped points in their previous two games, drawing 2-2 to both Liverpool and West Ham United.
Arteta's side are still four points clear of Manchester City, although Pep Guardiola will be encouraged by the fact his team have a game in hand on the north Londoners. Of course both teams will face each other at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, April 26 and whoever wins will put themselves firmly in the ascendancy in the title race.
Before that, though, Arsenal face Southampton on Friday and Arteta will be keen to increase the Gunners' lead at the top of the table to seven points. With William Saliba and Oleksandr Zinchenko both picking up injuries in recent weeks, however, Arteta has perhaps not had the luxury of rotating his squad as much as he would have liked, which may somewhat offer an explanation as to why the Gunners dropped points against Liverpool and West Ham.
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Arsenal icon Emmanuel Petit even believes Arteta has been at fault for recent results against Liverpool and West Ham. Speaking to Legal Sportsbooks, Petit said: "I think it was the same against Liverpool. He took some time to make substitutions and some players should have been involved earlier.
"The likes of [Leandro] Trossard for example, who I think has been brilliant since he signed for Arsenal. He has his first XI in his mind and he wants to stay with them until the end because he thinks they have been unbelievable since the beginning of the season.
"He’s probably thinking, ‘why should I change them?’ Because they were winning game after game? I can understand, but in the meantime, as he’s such a young manager, maybe he has to learn as well from that."
So, will the Spaniard consider making changes to his starting XI for the clash against the Saints? Well, in his post match press conference on Sunday afternoon, the former Manchester City assistant coach was asked why his players looked fatigued at the end of the game.
"Fatigue-wise no because what we produced in the first half against Liverpool was similar and today we put a higher input in the second half than in the first half," he said. "We were slower in everything that we did, but I don’t think team is fatigued or looked fatigued.
"The best way to put it is to convince the team how good they are when they do what they have to do. This is what we have to do in our brains."
Reading between the lines, some may see this response as an indication that Arteta sees no real reason to rotate his squad and make changes. While the team Arteta fields is likely to depend on the fitness of Saliba and Zinchenko, it remains to be seen if he feels the need to make further changes.
Whatever happens, players like Trossard, Jorginho, Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira and Eddie Nketiah will be ready to give their all if they are called upon.
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