Saints travel to Arsenal as firm underdogs looking to win in the league at the Gunners for the first time since 1987.

A fair chunk of the travelling Saints support at the Emirates would not have been born the last time Saints won in the League at Arsenal.

That win came in November 1987 when a 78th minute Danny Wallace goal gave Saints a shock 1-0 result, there has been the odd draw or two since but rarely have we looked like ending this streak without a victory.

Indeed Saints travel to North London with their supporters feeling there is little hope of that run ending after a slow start to the season, however there are reasons why the pessimism might be a little bit premature, not least Saints penchant for pulling the odd shock result out of the hat when it looks least likely as we did on Boxing Day last season.

It cannot be denied that the start hasn't gone to plan for Saints, but sometimes supporters perception is far from reality, at the moment some feel that the team have played badly in their opening games, that is not quite true, Saints have looked a very robust outfit and have created a lot of chances, the problem has been in adapting completely to the system and being clinical at crucial moments at both ends of the pitch.

Saints have completely dominated both home games and at Manchester United looked comfortable for most of the game and the game swung only in a five minute spell after the break when we had a goal disallowed and them moments later had a dodgy penalty awarded against us.

That performance perhaps gives hope that we can give a good account at the Emirates and perhaps get something out of it.

Some people are going on like we have sold 3/4 of the team, the reality of the situation is that we were without two of the departed three players for large chunks of the season either through suspension or just plain poor form, all three also came in for a lot of flak from the fans, the same fans who now seem to revere them as almost gods without whom the team will collapse.

As I say its all in perception and the squad is now coming together and is in now worse a position than it was last year when i won only once in the first six games.

The real talking point though is whether Claude Puel will change tactics to combat Arsenal, the Gunner attack down the wings whilst we set up very narrow, the worry is how we deal with this, last season we were set up with wing backs tracking back.

I think Puel will set up the back four as to his strongest line up, that means Cedric on the right, VVW & Fonte and the return of Ryan Bertrand.

Midfield is a little bit more of a conundrum, for me Hojbjerg and Davis are nailed on, it is then how we build round them, do we drop Redmond back to a role out wide and use Rodriguez or Tadic on the other flank or do we play a more attacking formation.

I would expect Shane Long to be the lone striker due to his workrate and movement in closing down the back four.

I don't know what Puel will do, but we will soon find out how tactically wise he is, in the opening three games his preferred formation suited the games and worked, but in this one it will be different.

Perhaps he will look to the Gunners previous home game against Liverpool, the visitors took the game to Arsenal and exposed them, perhaps that will be the tactic he will employ, certainly we are better defensively than Liverpool and could spring a shock.

So this is a key game for Puel, it is one where he will either get the Saints fans on his side or get the screaming banshees screaming louder, he needs to show that he is a leader and knows how to manage a game tactically, in this respect perhaps winning is not the real issue, but the performance, Saints need to show they can compete and not be rolled over.

Ironically enough last season we got battered at the Emirates, but fought a rearguard action to earn a great draw, we need more of that spirit tomorrow, if is there then it bodes well for the season, it needs to be there are too many waiting for Puel to fail if it is not.

Photo: Action Images

dirk_doone added 20:58 - Sep 9 We've only lost 1 of our last 6 games to Arsenal and they haven't sored a single goal in our last 3 meetings so why are we going there 'feeling there is little hope'?
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SanMarco added 23:01 - Sep 9 Because Dirk many of us feel, hopefully wrongly, that our team is not as good as it was then - after all we had won twice at Manure before last month's comfortable defeat.
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saintmark1976 added 23:52 - Sep 9 "Perhaps winning is not the real issue,but the performance"? Nick, when the results are given on Saturday afternoon I can assure you that very few Saints fans will give much importance to the performance if we have lost.
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aceofthebase added 14:48 - Sep 10 Playing Classie Cedric, I hope I'm wrong (again) but I'm dreading the game with these lightweights playing. Why is he playing Classie when Hojbjerg is fit enough to be on the bench?
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