Boxing Day sees Arsenal travel to the south coast to take on a dejected Southampton side, winless in the past five Premier League games.
By contrast, the Gunners are riding high following a convincing win over Manchester City which cemented them as title favourites.
Almost a year on from the embarrassing fallout after Saints beat the north Londoners 2-0 and Wojciech Szczesny was dropped for smoking in the changing rooms, Ronald Koeman’s side are dropping like a stone.
Graziano Pelle hasn’t scored in six and the defence are not looking any better, making life difficult.
But that will count for nothing come Saturday night and Arsene Wenger’s men should expect a tough game, especially considering the exploits of Monday night and facing the prospect of two games in two days.
That should see some rotation in one of the games. The problem being that injuries mean there are 14 first-team players effectively to choose from with a realistic chance of starting – and not much in the way of attacking options.
Combined with the fact he Gunners have dropped most of their points to teams between 11th and 16th, exactly where Southampton and Bournemouth are, means will be little margin for error.
Here is how we see Arsenal lining up.
