Mikel Arteta’s former Arsenal teammate Kieran Gibbs believes Arsenal’s starting XI against Southampton this afternoon will give an indication of whether the Gunners will finish the season as champions.
Arsenal have overcome a mini injury crisis and a daunting fixture schedule to make an excellent start to the new season ahead of the upcoming international break.
Still unbeaten, Arteta’s men are expected to make short work of the struggling Saints at Emirates Stadium having dismissed Ligue 1 champions PSG in midweek with the minimum of fuss.
While Arteta now appears to have a squad with few obvious weaknesses in it, the Spaniard has continued to rely on a core group of players and rarely, if ever, rotates.
Bukayo Saka, who captained the side in midweek, as well as Declan Rice both started the recent Carabao Cup win over Bolton, while the likes of Raheem Sterling have hardly featured so far.
Given Southampton’s start to the campaign, Arteta’s former teammate Kieran Gibbs believes this is a fixture that would afford Arsenal the chance to rest several key men which would give them a better chance in the long-run of finally toppling Manchester City.
Gibbs told ESPNFC: ‘I don’t think I’ve seen many at the moment but if I was to pick out something it would be something coming up this weekend.
‘How he rotates is going to be a clear sign of how their season plays out. We haven’t really scene this scenario from Arteta yet.
‘I think how he handles the squad this weekend in terms of the squad selection and who he picks to play is going to show us how much he trusts in this squad.
‘How that will then effect the players on the fringes if he doesn’t change things. How does that effect their confidence for the rest of the season.
‘I think this is what separates the really top, top managers from the other ones.
‘It’s how they manage their squads in these types of games. Managers like Pep and Fergie were masters of this and with the fixture schedule now he really needs to think about what he’s going to do.
‘I feel he’ll go full strength but if this weekend he doesn’t make changes, when else is he going to do that?
‘This could be the only Achilles heel is how he rotates throughout the season and we’re not going to see that until this weekend.’
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