{"id":13172,"date":"2026-04-03T19:21:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13172"},"modified":"2026-04-05T05:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T04:28:10","slug":"south-coast-cup-sojourn-for-multi-tasking-gunners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13172","title":{"rendered":"South Coast Cup Sojourn for Multi-Tasking Gunners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id=\"V9DlE1CEQHdM3Rjl5xg9gg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1435887644\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'V9DlE1CEQHdM3Rjl5xg9gg',sig:'ZQnC5SXJLYjAW8UMe2cMqZ8DyFsce1Y6wCL4G7wx9-8=',w:'594px',h:'430px',items:'1435887644',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" async=\"\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>In Arsenal\u2019s first post-Interlull outing since losing the League Cup final on March 22nd, a stretch of 12 match-free days, on Saturday the Gunners travel to Championship side Southampton in the FA Cup quarterfinals.&nbsp; It is an important occasion for Arsenal in several ways, firstly to regain positive momentum to erase any doubts that may have arisen from Arsenal\u2019s first loss since their home defeat to Manchester United in late January. Secondly, advancing in this competition is likely to be an essential aspect of Arsenal\u2019s bid to make their season as successful as it has looked for months like it could be, with the prospect of multiple trophies looming at the end of our long exertions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his pre-match comments Mikel Arteta addressed the need for the team to get back to winning ways, saying: \u201cWhen (we) didn&#8217;t manage to win that final\u2026what you have to take on board is how this is going to make us stronger for the final push of the season.\u201d With Arsenal now still competing in only three competitions, Arteta must balance his priorities just right in all team selection decisions in order to get the most out of his injury-strapped squad, and Saturday\u2019s match provides the first of many interesting tests for him in that regard between now and the end of the season.<br><br><strong>The opposition<\/strong>&nbsp;<br><br>As of March 22nd, the Saints were in sixth place in the Championship table after going unbeaten in their last 12 league games, qualifying them for the ultimate spot in the promotion play-offs, level on points with Wrexham but ahead of the Welsh side on goal difference.&nbsp; Southampton travel to Wrexham next Tuesday in what must surely be a massive league fixture in their minds, to be played the same afternoon Arsenal face Sporting Lisbon in the away leg of their Champions League quarterfinal.<br><br>Earlier this season Southampton\u2019s board appointed manager Tonda Eckert after he performed well in an interim role, and few second tier clubs have been in better form since that time.&nbsp; It may be too late for Saints to earn an automatic return to the Premier League, but they have moved into the top six places in the Championship and their positive momentum will be difficult to contain.&nbsp; Saints have beaten Doncaster, Leicester and Fulham to reach this quarterfinal, and they are enjoying their best FA Cup run since reaching this stage in 2022. The Saints are currently unbeaten in 14 games in all competitions, having won 10 of those matches.<br><br><strong>Arsenal team news<\/strong><br><br>Our long-missing and long-missed captain Martin Odegaard is said to be targeting this tie for a return from a knee injury after laboring to get back to full fitness, but Arteta will be closely monitoring his minutes so he may or may not be in the starting XI.<br><br>Arsenal had 15 first-team players involved in international matches, with Calafiori, Gyokeres and Norgaard in World Cup play-offs.&nbsp; All three of them played a significant number of minutes during their respective qualifiers.&nbsp; Saka, Rice, Madueke and White were originally all in the senior England squad, which faced Uruguay and Japan at Wembley, but only White featured much as the others thankfully dropped out early.&nbsp; Lewis-Skelly and Setford had England Under-21 Euro qualifiers away to Andorra and home in Norwich.&nbsp; Dowman played England under-19s Euro qualifiers in Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Martinelli traveled to North America for Brazil\u2019s two friendlies.&nbsp; Raya, Zubimendi and Mosquera joined Spain for two home matches, while Havertz\u2019s Germany played away and home. Hincapie joined Ecuador for two matches played in Europe.&nbsp; Eze (calf), Saliba (ankle), Gabriel (knee), Timber (groin) and Trossard (hip) missed their respective internationals due to injury, but the latter four could be in line for a return.<br><br>Madueke (knee) and Hincapie (hamstring) both limped out of their friendlies on the first Friday so both of them will miss this tie.&nbsp; In his pre-match presser Arteta said Madueke could be back in the squad within a few days: \u201cNoni was really worried after he was (recently) out for six weeks. But no, he\u2019s nowhere near that injury, so that was really good news.\u201d&nbsp; But Arteta\u2019s assessment of Hincapie\u2019s injury was not so positive, confirming that it will keep the defender out for an indefinite period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><br><strong>Arsenal XI<\/strong><br><br>Largely by process of elimination, selecting players who are healthy and capable of winning the tie but who have travelled minimally during the break, Arteta seems to have little choice but to pick a side like this one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Kepa<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">White Mosquera Gabriel Lewis-Skelly<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Dowman Rice Havertz&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka Jesus Trossard <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if Arteta were to play a significantly weakened lineup, by bringing in Salmon at right back for instance, the Gunners should still have enough to win but must be ready for a proper battle because Saints will certainly offer significant resistance and threat in front of their own fans. Arsenal\u2019s Tuesday Champions League quarterfinal at Sporting Lisbon must be an important consideration in Arteta\u2019s planning, and he may not risk a number of top players or minimize the number of minutes they play.&nbsp; On Friday, <em>el jefe<\/em> described his thought process like this: \u201cWe are going to make the strongest line-ups and decisions that we possibly can to win every competition. We are two or three games away in the FA Cup and we know how important that competition is for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Taking Arteta at his word, I expect Arsenal to come out with a spring in their step and to blow away a determined Saints side with a touch of quality here and a staunch determination all around to finish the season strongly. 3-0 to the away side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy the watch, \u2018holics.<br><br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images In Arsenal\u2019s first post-Interlull outing since losing the League Cup final on March 22nd, a stretch of 12 match-free days, on Saturday the Gunners travel to Championship side Southampton in the FA Cup quarterfinals.&nbsp; It is an important occasion for Arsenal in several ways, firstly to regain positive momentum to erase [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13172"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13186,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13172\/revisions\/13186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}