Arsenal take on Southampton in the Premier League tonight, and that means a battle with Ralph Hasenhuttl.
The Saints have been in superb form ahead of tonight’s games, losing just one of their 10 Premier League games, with seven wins in that run.
Given Arsenal’s dismal home form of late means Southampton will have real confidence of claiming all three points in North London – and Hasenhuttl may want to show the Gunners what they’re missing.
Back in late 2016, Hasenhuttl confirmed a story that Arsenal were looking to land him as Arsene Wenger’s eventual successor, suggesting there was ‘a lot of truth’ to the rumours about a potential move to Arsenal.
Wenger ended up staying at Arsenal for another 18 months, and Hasenhuttl left Leipzig at the same time as Wenger did with Arsenal – but no move materialised.
Just a few months later, Hasenhuttl joined Southampton, and has shown exactly why Arsenal wanted him having impressed in charge of the Saints.
The Austrian has Southampton playing a progressive brand of football strongly based on pressing, whilst they’re still solid at the back; they’ve scored 14 more goals than Arsenal whilst conceding just two more.
Mikel Arteta finds himself under huge pressure after just one wins in the last eight Premier League games, and only two goals scored across that run.
This is a tough matchup for the Spaniard to handle, and years after Arsenal targeted Hasenhuttl to be their future boss, he could pile the pressure on Arteta whilst moving 16 points clear of the Gunners with a win.
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