Southampton vs Arsenal: Arsene Wenger reveals Laurent Koscielny doubts, Granit Xhaka boost

Arsene Wenger is fearful that Arsenal centre-back Laurent Koscielny could miss Wednesday night's (10 May) Premier League trip to Southampton, although midfielder Granit Xhaka may feature at St Mary's after all.

Koscielny played the full 90 in a morale-boosting 2-0 victory over Manchester United at the weekend, but will require a test to establish his fitness despite training on Tuesday. Xhaka, who netted the opener in that aforementioned win, was initially a doubt to face Southampton but appears to be recovering well from a recurring ankle injury that forced his withdrawal in the 76th minute.

"We have some worries for Koscielny he might not be available, he will have a test today," Wenger confirmed during his pre-Saints press conference, as per The Mirror.

"We will make the decision after training. Xhaka similar but he looks to have recovered well, news for him is better."

Lucas Perez has not featured since making a cameo appearance in March's FA Cup quarter-final thrashing of Lincoln City and Wenger reported last week he had suffered a minor setback in training and would not be available for the visit of United to North London.

Providing a latest update on the little-used Spanish forward, he said: "He is again fit. He was back in training yesterday."

Sixth-place Arsenal, already guaranteed to finish below rivals Spurs for the first time since 1995, must beat mid-table Southampton in order to keep their hopes of achieving a top-four finish for the 21st season in succession alive.

"For us, we just want to win out games. That's all we can do," said Wenger, who also predictably declined to offer any update on his own future.

"For me I want to play at the top level and the top level is the Champions League. We want to play with and against the best."

He added: "We had a bad spell but we have recovered from it. We need to show we can be consistent until the end of the season."