Arsenal get to wear their first-choice red and white this evening. This is because Southampton will be dressed in yellow and blue, commemorating the 50th anniversary of their victory in the 1976 FA Cup final. Those are the colours they sported at Wembley as Bobby Stokes scored late on for Lawrie McMenemy’s second-division side, shocking hot favourites Manchester United. The commemorative shirt has the signatures of all the players in the cup-winning team woven into the fabric, and only 1,976 individually numbered replica shirts have been produced. Fans have been encouraged to follow suit with the retro colour scheme tonight, so let’s see if they comply.
Southampton make five changes after the 2-0 Championship win over Oxford United. Nathan Wood, Cam Bragg, Caspar Jander, Léo Scienza and Ross Stewart come in for Cameron Archer, Shea Charles and Cyle Larin, who are benched, and Flynn Downes and captain Jack Stephens, who miss out altogether.
Arsenal make seven changes following the Carabao Cup final, the most eye-catching of which is a start for 16-year-old Max Dowman. Cristhian Mosquera, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Christian Nørgaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and captain Martin Ødegaard also step up; William Saliba, Viktor Gyökeres and Martín Zubimendi are on the bench, while Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Piero Hincapié and Leandro Trossard are all absent.
The teams
Southampton: Peretz, Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Wood-Gordon, Manning, Bragg, Jander, Fellows, Azaz, Scienza, Stewart.
Subs: Long, Quarshie, Romeu, Charles, Edozie, Robinson, Archer, Oyekunle, Larin.
Arsenal: Arrizabalaga, White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Odegaard, Norgaard, Dowman, Havertz, Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus.
Subs: Raya, Saliba, Gyokeres, Madueke, Calafiori, Zubimendi, Harriman-Annous, O’Neill, Salmon.
Referee: Sam Barrott (West Yorkshire).
Preamble
Their unfortunate no-show at the League Cup final apart, Arsenal have taken some stopping this season. Liverpool, Aston Villa and Manchester United required dramatic late goals to best them in the Premier League and … er … that’s it. So on the face of thing, this should be a shoo-in for the leading club in England against second-tier opposition. Especially as Arsenal have won 45 of their last 48 FA Cup ties against teams from lower divisions; they’ve won 14 of their last 16 quarter-finals; tonight’s opponents Southampton have lost all of their last five quarter-finals against top-flight opposition; and Arsenal are four from five against the Saints in the FA Cup, a record that includes victory in the 2003 final.
But nothing’s ever that simple in the FA Cup. Arsenal may have that 80 percent record against Southampton in this competition, but it’s Saints who won the last meeting, 1-0 in January 2021. And while Arsenal are this season’s form team in England, Saints aren’t on a bad roll either, unbeaten in 14 games, having won six of their last seven. Fold in the fact that Arsenal’s victory at St Mary’s on the final day of last season was only their seventh win in 18 visits, at a venue where they’ve tasted defeat six times, and suddenly things aren’t quite so crystal clear.
You’d still expect the quadruple- treble-chasing Premier League leaders to prevail tonight; of course you would. But the FA Cup is fond of the odd surprise, and Arsenal have a crucial trip to Sporting Club coming up in three days’ time, so you just never know how this will pan out. The story begins at 8pm BST. It’s on!