Wenger: We’re heading the right way, but title talk is too soon

Ronaldo Koeman’s side were comfortbaly beaten at home by opposition from the capital in the form of Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, and the Saints are outsiders for their clash against Arsenal, with William Hill offering them at 13/5 (3.60) for the win.

The Gunners beat Manchester City on Monday evening to go two points from first placed Leicester City.

The Chilean said: “I think it’s very important to be involved, as we are now, at the end of January”.

“Football is pragmatic, no one can predict what will happen in the next 17 games for example”.

“Overall we had quite a positive year, stabilised our defensive record and improved our record against the strongest teams, so it looks as if we’re on the right track”.

Alexis Sanchez suffered a setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury earlier this week and will remain out of action until at least the second week in January. We have not to speculate too much on any weakness of Southampton.

Southampton are not in the type of form that saw them finish a club-record seventh last season but they still have the players to provide upsets.

The Gunners cemented their Premier League title bid with a 2-1 victory over rivals Manchester City at The Emirates on Monday night. “Today we improved in that sense and we made an individual mistake”, Pellegrini said.

“It is always hard, it means maybe a lack in confidence and belief, but the best medicine is to win the game”.

Throughout the 2015-16 season, the average possession of the team that goes on to win a game of football is just 49.2 per cent – a significant drop from the 52.8 per cent in 2011-12. “We lost our first game against West Ham so we were not absolutely sure we would be two points behind the leaders”. “We need to react”.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says his players will not be carried away ahead of Saturday’s game against Southampton.

“Every loss hurts – and that one has not gone out of my mind”, Wenger told Arsenal Player.

The German has actually assisted more goals than 13 Premier League squads – a stat that Crystal Palace forward Yannick Bolasie is impressed by.

“We can’t avoid injuries – sometimes you have more, sometimes you have less – but we showed that even with the unlucky injuries at the moment that we manage to win games”.