Southampton vs Arsenal - Betting Preview

Although Southampton still occupies one of the three relegation spots at present, Harry Redknapp has no doubt overseen a market improvement in his side. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />New signings Henri Camara, Olivier Bernard and Nigel Quashie have made a significant impact since their arrivals, while Redknapp has also recently had Graeme Le Saux available after two months on the sidelines through injury.What has stopped the Saints from moving out of the drop zone is the draws in recent weeks. Since the impressive home victory over Liverpool in January, the Saints have lost one and drawn twice.A further game was drawn in the FA Cup against Brentford. Annoyingly for the Saints in two of the stalemates, leads were thrown away late on. This is a trend that has to stop, something Harry Redknapp will of course be stressing. Now the St.Mary's boss has his first choice team all available, we can expect to see more of those draws being turned into victories. We know from their wins over Liverpool and Portsmouth in January, they are capable of achieving this. The next opponent for Southampton is Arsenal at home. It could be argued that now is a very good time to play the Gunners, who had a very tough defeat in Munich on Tuesday. In addition Dennis Bergkamp is suspended, and it is quite possible Jose Antonio Reyes is also heading for a few weeks off. Perhaps most crucially for the North Londoners is that Sol Campbell is still not recovered from injury. The England International's presence at the heart of the defence has been sorely missed of late, and in fact earlier in the season as well.It is the ability to keep the opposition out this season that has cost Arsenal in the Premiership, and now it appears the Champions League. In 40 games this season, only 11 clean sheets have been kept, almost a third the number of Chelsea shutouts.Although the last two Premiership games have been won convincingly by Arsenal, the draw against Sheffield United and defeat against Bayern Munich doesn't bode well for the coming weeks, starting with their trip to the South Coast on Saturday.When the above information is absorbed, a best price of 11/2 begins to look awfully tempting on Southampton collecting maximum points at the champion's expense.