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Arsene Wenger: Confidence is high but momentum can change at any moment
However, nearly 12 months on as they prepare for a Boxing Day assignment on the south coast, Arsenal have collected 78 points during the calendar year – 10 more than any other Premier League team – and are primed for a tilt at the title after Monday’s stirring 2-1 win over Manchester City closed them to within two points of leaders Leicester City. When you look at their team, they have the potential to be a very strong team. We have not to speculate too much on any weakness of Southampton. Nobody can predict what can happen in the next 17 games for example and you just want to go with the same attitude and spirit. You see on the pitch that my team-mates help me to play my game.
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If Arsenal can get their biggest asset of all, Alexis Sanchez, fit and playing regularly after his hamstring injury then Wenger’s side have the sort of quality that gives them a real chance.
Southampton also welcome their goalkeeper, Maarten Stekelenburg, back after missing two matches with a toe injury.
Sanchez has been sidelined since late November and, having been pencilled in for his comeback in Monday night’s 2-1 Premier League victory over Manchester City, he will now be absent for the entire Christmas schedule.
“Last season, we played at City and showed a different kind of match plan”, Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker said. “We had a bad run a year ago, but not like this one”.
“It means maybe a little bit of lack in confidence, in belief. We need to react”.
Arsene Wenger said he always gets his Gunners squad into London Colney early on the 25th to ensure they can get away early.
There is clear value in backing the Gunners to win this one.
“We lost important points at Arsenal and that was disappointing, but even though it was a six-pointer it was not a decisive game”.
On fire Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud has spoken of his humble beginnings in the French lower leagues as key to his current success in the Premier League.
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Ozil, 27, now has 15 assists for the campaign – just three fewer than Cesc Fabregas’s league-leading tally from last season – and Wenger revealed afterwards that he had spent most of the previous week in bed.