Hello and welcome to LIVE updates of Southampton v Arsenal. Can the Gunners shrug off the Brighton debacle and a week where not much has gone right, to keep fading European hopes alive? Or will the Saint inflict a third straight loss on Mikel Arteta's men and reach that 40-point mark? Kick off 18:00 BST.

Arsenal rip Southampton open down the left. Saka marauds into the left side of the box and rolls it across for a tap-in for Nketiah - but it won't count. Offside.

First sight of Aubameyang sees the Gunners hit man fizz a venomous drive straight at McCarthy.

DID YOU KNOW? Ralph Hasenhuttl's first win as Southampton manager was against the Gunners in December 2018.

Emiliano Martinez will be keen to get an early, blemish-free touch as he assumes the role between the sticks for Arsenal in place of the injured Bernd Leno. Also interesting that Arteta has left Matteo Guendouzi out the squad after what happened at Brighton. The Gunners boss gave a curt reply when asked about it pre-match - "It's squad management," he said.

Head-to-head: The Saints have won three of their past five Premier League home matches against Arsenal, more than they had in their previous 12 against them.

Early encouragement for the hosts. Bertrand whips a cross towards Ings who miscues a volley into an Arsenal body. The away side eventually clear, but that could have been the perfect start for Southampton.

KICK OFF! Southampton get us underway.

WILL SAINT DAN BE THE MAN AGAIN AGAINST ARSENAL? Danny Ings has scored three goals in his last two league appearances against Arsenal. The former Liverpool hit man has 16 PL goals this term, one behind Aubameyang and two adrift of leading marksman, Jamie Vardy.

Speculation surrounding the future of Aubameyang continues to fill the media's football gossip sections. It's a ton up in all competitions this evening. Indeed, a goal here would see him become the sixth fastest player to reach 50 Premier League goals in what is his 78th appearance.

A bit more from Arteta: “Until we start to win games, the Champions League objective is too far at the moment. My only focus is, go to Southampton and get the three points, win, lift the players and start believing again that we can get wins again in a row.”

Mikel Arteta on his belief that Bukayo Saka will commit to Arsenal: “I am very positive that everything is going to be done with Bukayo very shortly. The communications between the club, agents and the family has been going on for months and is very fluent. The player and family knows how much trust I have in him. He is just showing that every week and his consistency level is getting better and better. I’m so excited with the young players that we have. They just need the right environment around them to explode and Bukayo is doing that, even in difficult circumstances, which is even more merit for him.”

Ralph Hasenhuttl: "They had difficult fixtures in the first two games – both away games – and now they have a third one, so we know it’s an important game for us at home. We don’t see a reason why we cannot go into this game with a lot of self-confidence and respect, and we will try to bring our game on to the pitch – this is the target we have. When we play in the way that we can, showing the good movements we showed in the last game, anything is possible. I think we can cause every club problems."

Plenty of transfer rumours doing the rounds at this time of year. As we build up to this contest, why not catch up on the latest from the continent in our Euro Papers video?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Southampton are unchanged from the 3-0 win at Norwich last time out.

There is some additional good news on the bench though, with Shane Long back after missing the trip to Carrow Road.

CONFIRMED TEAMS - SOUTHAMPTON: McCarthy, Valery, Stephens, Bednarek, Bertrand, Armstrong, Ward-Prowse, Hojbjerg, Obafemi, Redmond, Ings... Subs: Gunn, Vestergaard, Long, Adams, Romeu, Walker-Peters, Smallbone, Vokins, Tella. /// ARSENAL: Martinez, Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Tierney, Pepe, Ceballos, Xhaka, Saka, Nketiah, Aubameyang... Subs: Macey, Sokratis, Lacazette, Ozil, Maitland-Niles, Nelson, Willock, Kolasinac, Smith.