Greetings, fellow Gooners! Welcome to another edition of WIITW (pronounced “wit-wuh”, for the uninitiated).

Here’s the last post I made ahead of the 2-0 win over Man United.

On Wednesday night, we go to Southampton.

The Managers

Arsenal

Here’s Arsene Wenger’s full press conference from this morning.

On Rob Holding: “I expect good performances. He had some positive performances before. He has shown intelligence, composure on the ball. In every game he played, he became stronger throughout the game. He’s still a bit introvert. He’s not big speaking at the moment.”

On our form and momentum: “We had a bad spell but we have recovered from it. We need to show we can be consistent. It gives us confidence to create that momentum but if you look at the schedule we play Wednesday, Sunday, Tuesday. We have to use the squad in a very efficient way. Everybody needs to contribute at the right moment.”

On Southampton: “They have done well against the big teams. Overall, he [Claude Puel] has done well.”

Southampton

Frenchman Claude Puel is coming to the end of his first season in English football. He replaced Ronald Koeman as Saints boss last summer. He’s previously managed Monaco, Lille, Lyon and Nice.

Puel is a bit of a legend at Monaco. He spent his entire playing career with them, making over 600 appearances. In all, he won three French league titles and two French Cups as a player. Monaco won the 1987-88 Ligue 1 title and 1991 Coupe de France with Puel in the side – and Arsene Wenger as manager!

His only managerial honours came during his time in charge of Monaco. However, Puel did lead Lyon to the semi-finals of the 2009-10 Champions League – the furthest they’ve ever made it in the competition. Lyon finished ahead of Liverpool in the group stage and knocked out Real Madrid in the last 16. But they were eventually beaten by Bayern Munich in the last four.

How’s your form?

Arsenal

The Gunners come into this game off the back of a decent 2-0 win over Man United. It gave a real boost to our top four hopes. The result marked a fifth win in seven matches in all competitions and a fourth win in the last five home matches in the Premier League. But we’re away on Wednesday and our away form makes for much tougher reading. We’ve won just two of the last ten games on the road in the League – at Swansea and Middlesbrough. But we did win at St. Mary’s this season – a 5-0 rout in the FA Cup in January.

Last 5 (all comps): WWWLW

P: 34 W: 19 D: 6 L: 9 F: 66 A: 42 Pts: 63 Pos: 6th

Southampton

The Saints are on a four-game run without a win. Their last two games were 0-0 draws against Hull and Liverpool. We all know Arsenal have struggled at Southampton in the last couple of years, but Claude Puel’s side have one of the worst home records in the Premier League this season. Only Middlesbrough, Crystal Palace and Sunderland have won fewer points at home than the Saints. Granted, they have played two fewer home games than most teams at this stage of the season, but they could still be on for their lowest points tally at home since their return to the top flight five years ago.

Last 5: WLLDD

P: 34 W: 11 D: 9 L: 14 F: 39 A: 44 Pts: 42 Pos: 10th

Team News

Arsenal

Laurent Koscielny may be out for the match tomorrow night. He played the full 90 minutes against Man United on Sunday but Wenger said today that the centre-back faces a fitness test. “We will make a decision after training.”

Granit Xhaka is more likely to play for the Gunners. The Swiss midfielder was a doubt ahead of the United match but came through and played for the majority of the game. According to Wenger, Xhaka is more likely to feature than Koscielny.

Lucas Perez is fit and available again. He hasn’t played since the defeat to West Brom in March.

Southampton

The hosts have no new injury concerns ahead of the game. Charlie Austin could return to the squad, having made his comeback for the u-23’s side against Man City on Friday. He’s been out since dislocating his shoulder in December.

Full-back Matt Targett featured in the u-23’s game too and Claude Puel said yesterday that he thinks both Austin and Targett are ready to return to the first team.

Head-to-Head

Arsenal and Southampton have played each other 92 times before and the Gunners have won just over half of the previous meetings – 47. Southampton have beaten Arsenal 20 times and there have been 25 draws.

Their very first clash was a big one – the 1927 FA Cup semi-final. They played at Stamford Bridge and Arsenal won it 2-1, advancing to their first ever FA Cup Final (which we lost 1-0 to Cardiff).

The two sides didn’t meet in League football until 1966. Arsenal won a Boxing Day game 4-1 at Highbury. As was common at the time, they played the reverse fixture the following day. Southampton won it 2-1 at The Dell.

Arsenal didn’t win away to Southampton until their third trip to the South coast. John Radford scored both goals in a 2-1 victory in September 1968.

The Gunners then went unbeaten for the next six visits to The Dell before losing 2-0 in March 1979.

In 1991-92, the final season before the First Division was rebranded as the Premiership (Premier League), Arsenal won home and away to Southampton, scoring nine goals in the process. After a 4-0 win away from home, the Gunners put five past Southampton in the last game of the season.

The Saints won their first Premier League clash with Arsenal. All told, they’ve met 35 times in the Premier League – Arsenal have won 19 and lost just six times. All six Premier League defeats to Southampton have come away from home.

Our first Premier League win at Southampton came in March 1994. Ian Wright scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 win.

Arsenal haven’t won a League match at St. Mary’s since Southampton returned to the top flight in 2012 (D 2, L 2). Our last League win there was in December 2003.

Southampton moved to St. Mary’s in 2001 and Arsenal have played there nine times in all competitions. Results in this fixture have been pretty even – three wins each and three draws. The goal difference is almost just as evenly balanced – 14-13 in Arsenal’s favour.

That’s Interesting

How about some goals?

And that’s that…

So there you have it – everything you needed to know and all the goals you needed to see to fully prepare for the match. Kick off is at 7:45pm on Wednesday night. An Arsenal win will lift us to fifth and within three points of the top four. We’d also be four points behind Liverpool with a game in hand so there’s a chance to put a bit of pressure on them. Southampton are comfortably mid-table but we shouldn’t assume they’ll roll over just because they have nothing to fight for. Hopefully we can get a nice run of results to finish the season. A decent run would put us in good shape for the FA Cup Final, even if we don’t reach the Champions League places.

I’ll be back in a few days to preview our next match – we got to Stoke City.

Thanks for reading!