Relegated Southampton made a difficult start to life back in the Championship, which saw the Saint relieve manager Will Still of his duties and insert Tonda Eckert at the helm.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old has worked wonders on the south coast as Southampton have risen up the table and now find themselves in the play-off positions without a defeat since January 17.<\/p>\n
In addition to that, the Saints have been on a fine cup run, knocking out Doncaster Rovers, Leicester City and Premier League outfit Fulham to reach this stage of the competition.<\/p>\n
WHAT THE MANAGERS SAY<\/h3>\n\n\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nArteta:<\/strong> “It’s a huge competition, so related to the history of our football club. We\u2019re going to play a team that is in a really good moment, they have won so many games recently, they\u2019re in a really good moment. You know the expectations, the crowd, the environment that they are going to create, so we are ready for that, and we want to be at Wembley again, so tomorrow we have the opportunity to do that again.” \u00a0– Read every word from Mikel’s presser now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Every word from Arteta’s pre-Southampton presser <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n\n\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nEckert:<\/strong> “The reality is that we go into a game to win and we’ve always done that, for me there is no other way that exists. As a great team, I think rightfully every single manager in press conferences praises what Arsenal do and I can only continue that praise.<\/p>\n“They are a fantastic team with many answers to problems that you give them, so the preparation was fun this week because it’s just many iterations of what you could potentially do and then you see that they do have answers to many possible solutions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Wrighty’s trio of ’90s trebles against Southampton <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nTEAM NEWS<\/h3>\n\n\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nMikel confirmed that captain Martin Odegaard and defender Jurrien Timber are both in contention for our trip to the south coast. Martin hasn’t featured since our win over Tottenham in February, with Jurrien a first-half substitute in our 2-0 win over Everton last month.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Mikel said that Ebere Eze is still recovering, having missed the Carabao Cup final and the international break with England. The boss was hopeful for Noni Madueke; however, after he suffered an injury in England’s 1-1 draw against Uruguay. <\/p>\n
As for our hosts, the Saints will be without Flynn Downes and Kury Matuski due to suspension, having picked up yellow cards against Fulham in the previous round.<\/p>\n
Eckhert is hoping to have attacker Leo Scienza and defender Jack Stephens back from their respective injuries. Mads Roerslev (knee), Welington (muscle), Jay Robinson (thigh) and Alex McCarthy (wrist), are all out of the contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Mikel’s update on Hincapie, Madueke and Eze <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n<\/p>\n
TALKING TACTICS<\/h3>\n\n\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nAdrian Clarke has been examining our Saturday opponents and given us this debrief before our trip to St Mary’s.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonda Eckert is a head coach who wants to play exciting, attacking football and the Saints are largely doing that in the Championship, using a 4-2-3-1 formation. Moving away from the back three inherited, Southampton have become more fluid and front-footed across the past five months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are a possession-based outfit who average a 57.2% share of the ball, but up against us it is sure to be different. Eckert\u2019s men will still try to play out from the back and go short through the thirds, but they will undoubtedly adopt more of a counterattacking strategy than usual. We saw that in the fifth round when they beat Fulham 1-0 with just 32% of possession, posing real danger on the counter.<\/p>\n
\u201cSouthampton\u2019s Leo Scienza, a left winger, is their best ball carrier on breakaways, so if he starts the Brazilian will be a threat. They also have the likes of Tom Fellows, an old school wide man who crosses well, and Fin Azaz, an attacking midfielder of guile, who will relish the opportunity to shine against us.<\/p>\n
\u201cSet pieces are a major strength. Full back Ryan Manning boasts a superb left foot which can create chaos from corners, or wide free kicks. He is also capable of curling direct free kicks into the top corner too. Our quarter-final opponents have netted 21 times from dead-ball situations in 2025\/26; an impressive haul which is only bettered by Championship leaders Coventry City.<\/p>\n
\u201cSouthampton can be fragile at the back. Giving up plenty of chances, there are currently 13 second tier sides with a better expected goals against record than them. Perhaps not the quickest in defence, Mikel Arteta may target them with our superior speed on Saturday evening.”<\/p>\n
FACTS AND STATS<\/h3>\n\n\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nThis will be our sixth FA Cup tie against Southampton. We have progressed from each of the first four in 1926\/27, 1978\/79, 2002\/03, and 2016\/17, but the Saints won the last 1-0 in the 2020\/21 fourth round.<\/p>\n
We have won both of our last two meetings with Southampton in all competitions (both in the 2024\/25 Premier League), last winning three in a row against the Saints in February 2004 (4).<\/p>\n
We have progressed from 45 of our last 48 FA Cup ties against sides from outside the Premier League, falling only to Blackburn Rovers in 2012\/13, Nottingham Forest in 2017\/18, and Forest again in 2021\/22.<\/p>\n
Southampton have been eliminated from each of their last five FA Cup quarter-final ties when facing top-flight opponents, including against us in 1978\/79. They last progressed from such a tie in 1962\/63, beating Nottingham Forest after two replays, while the Saints were in the second tier.<\/p>\n
We have progressed from 14 of their last 16 FA Cup quarter-final ties, going out only in 2010\/11 to Manchester United and 2015\/16 to Watford in this time.<\/p>\n
Gabriel Martinelli has more goal involvements than any other player in the FA Cup this season from the third round (4 goals, 1 assist), while each of his last six goal involvements in the competition have come against lower-league opponents.<\/p>\n
MATCH OFFICIALS<\/h3>\n\n\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nSam Barrott will be taking charge of our FA Cup quarter-final at St Mary’s. The Yorkshire-born referee has been in charge of three of our matches this season, winning against Brighton, Sunderland and Everton. James Mainwaring and Wade Smith will be Barrott’s assistants for the match, with Thomas Bramall on fourth official duty.<\/p>\n
VAR will be in use for this fixture, with James Bell in charge at Stockley Park. Nick Hopton is the assistant VAR.<\/p>\n
Referee: <\/strong>Sam Barrett
Assistant Referees: <\/strong>James Mainwaring & Wade Smith
Fourth Official: <\/strong>Thomas Bramall
OUR: <\/strong>James Bell
Assistant VAR: <\/strong>Nick Hopton<\/p>\nSOUTH COAST MEMORIES<\/h3>\n\n<\/article>\nOur first game at St Mary’s Stadium came back in 2001, winning 2-0 thanks to goals from XX and XX.<\/p>\n
We’ve experienced FA Cup success on the south coast too. In January 2017, a double from Danny Welbeck and a hat-trick from Theo Walcott helped us knock out Southampton 5-0 in the fourth round of the competition.<\/p>\n
Our most recent visit came on the final day of last season. It was a special day for Kieran Tierney, who signed off his Arsenal career with a front post finish to open the scoring.<\/p>\n
Ross Stewart equalised for already-relegated Southampton before Martin Odegaard slammed home in injury time to ensure we signed off the 2024\/25 campaign in style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n From the vault: Six classic wins at Southampton <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n<\/p>\n
HOW TO WATCH<\/h3>\n\n\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nIn the UK, this match will be shown live on BBC and TNT Sports. <\/strong>Elsewhere in the world, see which broadcasters are showing the game live by pressing on the below article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n How to watch Southampton v Arsenal live on TV <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\nCopyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our FA Cup journey continues on the south coast as we head to Southampton for the quarter-final on Saturday at 8pm. We’ve defeated Portsmouth, Wigan Athletic and Mansfield Town to … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Arteta:<\/strong> “It’s a huge competition, so related to the history of our football club. We\u2019re going to play a team that is in a really good moment, they have won so many games recently, they\u2019re in a really good moment. You know the expectations, the crowd, the environment that they are going to create, so we are ready for that, and we want to be at Wembley again, so tomorrow we have the opportunity to do that again.” \u00a0– Read every word from Mikel’s presser now.<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Eckert:<\/strong> “The reality is that we go into a game to win and we’ve always done that, for me there is no other way that exists. As a great team, I think rightfully every single manager in press conferences praises what Arsenal do and I can only continue that praise.<\/p>\n “They are a fantastic team with many answers to problems that you give them, so the preparation was fun this week because it’s just many iterations of what you could potentially do and then you see that they do have answers to many possible solutions.”<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Mikel confirmed that captain Martin Odegaard and defender Jurrien Timber are both in contention for our trip to the south coast. Martin hasn’t featured since our win over Tottenham in February, with Jurrien a first-half substitute in our 2-0 win over Everton last month.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Mikel said that Ebere Eze is still recovering, having missed the Carabao Cup final and the international break with England. The boss was hopeful for Noni Madueke; however, after he suffered an injury in England’s 1-1 draw against Uruguay. <\/p>\n As for our hosts, the Saints will be without Flynn Downes and Kury Matuski due to suspension, having picked up yellow cards against Fulham in the previous round.<\/p>\n Eckhert is hoping to have attacker Leo Scienza and defender Jack Stephens back from their respective injuries. Mads Roerslev (knee), Welington (muscle), Jay Robinson (thigh) and Alex McCarthy (wrist), are all out of the contest.<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adrian Clarke has been examining our Saturday opponents and given us this debrief before our trip to St Mary’s.<\/p>\n \u201cTonda Eckert is a head coach who wants to play exciting, attacking football and the Saints are largely doing that in the Championship, using a 4-2-3-1 formation. Moving away from the back three inherited, Southampton have become more fluid and front-footed across the past five months.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are a possession-based outfit who average a 57.2% share of the ball, but up against us it is sure to be different. Eckert\u2019s men will still try to play out from the back and go short through the thirds, but they will undoubtedly adopt more of a counterattacking strategy than usual. We saw that in the fifth round when they beat Fulham 1-0 with just 32% of possession, posing real danger on the counter.<\/p>\n \u201cSouthampton\u2019s Leo Scienza, a left winger, is their best ball carrier on breakaways, so if he starts the Brazilian will be a threat. They also have the likes of Tom Fellows, an old school wide man who crosses well, and Fin Azaz, an attacking midfielder of guile, who will relish the opportunity to shine against us.<\/p>\n \u201cSet pieces are a major strength. Full back Ryan Manning boasts a superb left foot which can create chaos from corners, or wide free kicks. He is also capable of curling direct free kicks into the top corner too. Our quarter-final opponents have netted 21 times from dead-ball situations in 2025\/26; an impressive haul which is only bettered by Championship leaders Coventry City.<\/p>\n \u201cSouthampton can be fragile at the back. Giving up plenty of chances, there are currently 13 second tier sides with a better expected goals against record than them. Perhaps not the quickest in defence, Mikel Arteta may target them with our superior speed on Saturday evening.”<\/p>\n This will be our sixth FA Cup tie against Southampton. We have progressed from each of the first four in 1926\/27, 1978\/79, 2002\/03, and 2016\/17, but the Saints won the last 1-0 in the 2020\/21 fourth round.<\/p>\n We have won both of our last two meetings with Southampton in all competitions (both in the 2024\/25 Premier League), last winning three in a row against the Saints in February 2004 (4).<\/p>\n We have progressed from 45 of our last 48 FA Cup ties against sides from outside the Premier League, falling only to Blackburn Rovers in 2012\/13, Nottingham Forest in 2017\/18, and Forest again in 2021\/22.<\/p>\n Southampton have been eliminated from each of their last five FA Cup quarter-final ties when facing top-flight opponents, including against us in 1978\/79. They last progressed from such a tie in 1962\/63, beating Nottingham Forest after two replays, while the Saints were in the second tier.<\/p>\n We have progressed from 14 of their last 16 FA Cup quarter-final ties, going out only in 2010\/11 to Manchester United and 2015\/16 to Watford in this time.<\/p>\n Gabriel Martinelli has more goal involvements than any other player in the FA Cup this season from the third round (4 goals, 1 assist), while each of his last six goal involvements in the competition have come against lower-league opponents.<\/p>\n Sam Barrott will be taking charge of our FA Cup quarter-final at St Mary’s. The Yorkshire-born referee has been in charge of three of our matches this season, winning against Brighton, Sunderland and Everton. James Mainwaring and Wade Smith will be Barrott’s assistants for the match, with Thomas Bramall on fourth official duty.<\/p>\n VAR will be in use for this fixture, with James Bell in charge at Stockley Park. Nick Hopton is the assistant VAR.<\/p>\n Referee: <\/strong>Sam Barrett Our first game at St Mary’s Stadium came back in 2001, winning 2-0 thanks to goals from XX and XX.<\/p>\n We’ve experienced FA Cup success on the south coast too. In January 2017, a double from Danny Welbeck and a hat-trick from Theo Walcott helped us knock out Southampton 5-0 in the fourth round of the competition.<\/p>\n Our most recent visit came on the final day of last season. It was a special day for Kieran Tierney, who signed off his Arsenal career with a front post finish to open the scoring.<\/p>\n Ross Stewart equalised for already-relegated Southampton before Martin Odegaard slammed home in injury time to ensure we signed off the 2024\/25 campaign in style.<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the UK, this match will be shown live on BBC and TNT Sports. <\/strong>Elsewhere in the world, see which broadcasters are showing the game live by pressing on the below article.<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our FA Cup journey continues on the south coast as we head to Southampton for the quarter-final on Saturday at 8pm. We’ve defeated Portsmouth, Wigan Athletic and Mansfield Town to … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Every word from Arteta’s pre-Southampton presser <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n Wrighty’s trio of ’90s trebles against Southampton <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nTEAM NEWS<\/h3>\n
Mikel’s update on Hincapie, Madueke and Eze <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nTALKING TACTICS<\/h3>\n
FACTS AND STATS<\/h3>\n
MATCH OFFICIALS<\/h3>\n
Assistant Referees: <\/strong>James Mainwaring & Wade Smith
Fourth Official: <\/strong>Thomas Bramall
OUR: <\/strong>James Bell
Assistant VAR: <\/strong>Nick Hopton<\/p>\nSOUTH COAST MEMORIES<\/h3>\n
From the vault: Six classic wins at Southampton <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nHOW TO WATCH<\/h3>\n
How to watch Southampton v Arsenal live on TV <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n