Football: Weekend guide to the Premiership

Arsenal v Southampton Last season: 3

ARSeNE WENGER, the Arsenal manager, will be without the French midfielder Emmanuel Petit who picked up a hamstring injury on international duty during the week. Not that his absence is in any way expected to prevent the champions from inflicting further misery on the bottom-placed Saints at Highbury today, however Wenger also has doubts over Tony Adams and Ray Parlour, but both will undergo late fitness tests. Steve Bould and Stephen Hughes stand by to deputise.

Southampton are without Carlton Palmer, who is suspended, while the England Under-21 player Matthew Oakley is poised to start his first game for two months after recovering from a back injury. Another glimmer of hope for the Saints could emerge in the form of Mark Hughes, who, fresh from captaining the Welsh to a 3-2 win over Belarus, returns to the attack after missing the home defeat against Manchester United through suspension.

ARSENAL (from): Seaman, Dixon, Keown, Adams, Bould, Winterburn, Grimandi, Vivas, Garde, Parlour, Ljungberg, Vieira, Hughes, Bergkamp, Anelka, Wreh, Manninger.

SOUTHAMPTON (from): Jones, Warner, Benali, Lundekvam, Monkou, Oakley, Howells, Bridge, Le Tissier, Ostenstad, Hughes, Beattie, Marshall, Basham, Ripley, Gibbens, Hiley, Moss.

Injuries: Arsenal: Petit. Southampton: None.

Suspensions: Arsenal: None. Southampton: Palmer.