Evening all! Welcome to Southampton v Arsenal!

GOAL! Southampton 1-0 Arsenal (Armstrong) Ward-Prowse swings out to the edge of the box - this is clearly a rehearsed move - where Armstrong arrives to sweep a half-volley beyond Leno. Pemny for em, Alexandre!

Southampton win a corner down the right...

Huge chance for Arsenal! My man Bednarek gives it away, a careless pass picking out Xhaka who immediately sticks Lacazette in. McCarthy gets out well, but the striker has the option of rounding him or lifting it over him, only to try for a nutmeg, the ball catching the underside of the keeper's top thigh and squirting away from goal.

Away we go!

This thread is absolutely fantastic, read all of it.

Here come the teams!

Nicolas Pepe, then. I can't think of too many better wastes of £72m. When Arsenal bought him, he'd had one great season playing in the second-best team in a low-quality league, couldn't get into the Cote d'Ivoire first XI and no one else wanted him. I've no idea how they ended up paying so much.

Talking of Xhaka, by the way, if I was Ralph Hasenhuttl - for avoidance of doubt, I'm not - i'd be having my players press him at every available opportunity.

Five defeats on the sin for Newcastle now. Frank Lampard is available...

Elsewhere, Leeds have won 2-1 at Newcastle and West Ham have won 3-2 at Palace to go fourth in the table. What a job David Moyes is doing.

What arsenal really need is an upgrade on Granit Xhaka, and not because he's can't stop getting sent off but because he's not good enough.

As for Arsenal, they'll miss the injured Tierney, but I'm looking forward to seeing how Partey, Saka and Smith Rowe link up. Long term, Smith Rowe will be defined by his numbers - if you play as a number 10, bottom line is you need to supply lots of goals and assists - but he's extremely enjoyable to watch. Saka, meanwhile, has phenomenal game intelligence for a player of his age, and I wonder if he'll end up in midfield, but for now am glad he's not at left-back.

You know what, this is nothing to do with the game but I'm going to post it anyway because it's instructive.

That said, I've been extremely impressed with Jan Bednarek over the last couple of seasons. If I'm guessing, I saying he'll be the next to leave for big money.

When we talk about Southampton we mainly talk about Ward-Prowse, Ings and Adams - with good reason. Ward-Prowse has unbelievable energy and set-piece delivery, while Adams and Ings are striking partnership of the old school, physical monsters with all-round ability. If they play well tonight, Holding and Luiz are in trouble.

Arsenal, meanwhile, mix and match again. They play Manchester United on Saturday and I expect that's why Gabriel is rested - his spot goes to David Luiz - while Partey replaces Elneny, and Saka, Smith Rowe and Lacazette come in for Martinelli, Willian and Nketiah respectively.

Southampton make three changes from the weekend. In goal, McCarthy takes back his place from Forster, while at full-back, Walker-Peters - who is maturing into a very fine player - and Bertand miss out entirely with neither is even on the bench, a reflection of how much work they do and how hard this season is. Coming in for them are Valery and Vokins.

Let's investigate the teams...