Not the game that you really want coming up on Boxing Day when you are on the crest of a slump, but hey ho !
Saints would have wished for a slightly easier game to start the festive period fixtures, but one thing that this season has thrown up in the Premier League is that any side can beat any of the others, so from that point of view Saints are far from having no hope in this game.
What it does need though is that the Saints players find that inner strength and spirit that can not only change a game, or a losing run but a season.
This is a time for leaders to appear, to stand strong and pull Saints out of this slump.
Ronald Koeman is clearly tearing his hair out at what is happening, in general our matches are following the same patterns, we dominate large periods of the game, are comfortable in others but concede soft goals through lapses in concentration and individual error.
This has to stop, Koeman has already spoke of needing to look carefully at the performances of some and consider whether some of the more fringe players might do a better job.
Whether this is the game that he does that is a different matter it will take a brave man to drop Victor Wanyama, but the reality is that he has not deserved his place in the last few games, Jordy Clasie put in a good stint against Spurs and Romeu has let no one down when picked, will Koeman go with these two as his holding midfield duo and banish Wanyama to the bench?
Arsenal have seven first teamers out injured, so the game is far from being one sided, indeed a couple of wins in the last five games and we may well have gone into this contest not only with confidence but as favourites.
But that is not the case, but we have to look at what we have done earlier in the season and believe that if we can find our confidence then this squad is more than capable of winning this game, especially with the Gunners so injury ravaged.
Another dilemma for Koeman is who does he play in goal ? Stekelenburg let nobody down when he played, but there was the feeling amongst some supporters that although he was steady, he did not make those saves that distinguish steady keepers from very good ones, there was never that crucial wonder stop that was the difference between a loss or a draw or a draw and a win.
Paulo Gazzaniga looked the part in the two games he has deputised, at Palace he made a trio of saves at a key moment and although ultimately we still lost there was a feeling that he had stopped it being much worse and that because of that we were still in the game up to the 90th minute.
So Koeman has a dilemma, does he return the steady Stekelenburg or does he contnue Gazza's development.
Overall this is going to be a tough game, but there are factors that make it far from a foregone conclusion.