Alexandre Lacazette has been missing from training in recent days, and was also a notable absentee from today’s playing squad to take on Southampton, and Arsenal have finally explained why.

Manager Mikel Arteta refused to explain any reasoning for his striker’s absence when speaking to the press on Friday, claiming that he was hopeful that he would be available today to take on the Saints at St Mary’s, but it has now been revealed that he has in fact tested positive for Covid-19.

Alex Lacazette misses out on today's matchday squad after testing positive for Covid.

Wishing you all the best, @LacazetteAlex

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) April 16, 2022

The teams are out for this afternoon’s Premier League clash at St Mary’s Stadium, with this Arsenal side set to take on Southampton.

Neither side comes into today’s outing in the best of form, with the Gunners losing both of their last two while the home side are winless in six, coincidentally conceding six in their last fixture also.

While you would think that the Gunners would be confident of a result with all things considered, there is key injury absentees as well as some disappointing performances which will be stuck in their mind, and you would hope that this team will give us the impetus to start the match brightly and look to assert things here today.

TEAM NEWS!

Tavares returns to the XI
Odegaard captains the side
Nketiah starts up front#SOUARS

Arsenal will go to Southampton today in desperate need of a win, with their Champions League hopes having crashed in recent weeks.

The Gunners were favourites to close in on a top-four finish during the international break, but after losing to both Crystal Palace and Brighton they are now clawing to such hopes.

Tottenham have taken full advantage of our slip to forge ahead of us in the table, and will hopefully drop points against the Seagulls (I’m not holding my breath) to open the door for us to close the gap on our rivals.

Regardless of their result however, the pressure will be on us to keep our dream alive, with us still having every chance of reaching the Champions League, assuming we can get back to form as well as beat our noisy neighbours later in the campaign.

There is little point in looking ahead to other fixtures if we cannot get that ball rolling again by returning to winning ways in Hampshire, and that will not come easy. We have conceded five goals in our last two outings, with our side seemingly struggling to deal with our key injury absences, and an away trip to Southampton is far from an easy task.

Every Arsenal fan in the world is well aware that Eddie Nketiah will be leaving us on a free transfer this summer, along with Alexandre Lacazette, and the Gunners would be even more short of strikers than ever before.

But right now, with Lacazette expected to miss the trip to Southampton today, I simply cannot see that Mikel Arteta has any choice except to play our misfiring youngster.

Although us fans don’t rate him for his goalscoring record over the last few years, the fact is that he is only ever used as a substitute when Arteta is ready to bring smeone off (usually Lacazette who rarely lasts 90 minutes either). In fact, against Brighton, Nketiah played for a whole 28 minutes, which is the longest time he has been on the pith for Arsenal this year!

It must also be noted that, although he hasn’t scored this year, Nketiah has hit the post or the bar in his last few games, so you could say that he is getting closer. Maybe with a full 90 minutes under his belt he may just put the ball in the back of the net.

There is also the problem that Arteta simply has no one else that could play up front anyway, unless he shocks us all by giving Pepe a starting spot.