Arsene Wenger has admitted to wanting to get one over Southampton on Tuesday night for the crushing defeat Saints dealt Arsenal on Boxing Day.
The Gunners were embarrassingly thrashed 4-0 on the south coast at a time when spirits were sky-high following a massive victory over Manchester City.
Ronald Koeman’s side will travel to north London for the reverse fixture confident, coming off of three consecutive wins, but Wenger, as reported by the official Arsenal website, claimed that they will be wanting to set the record straight.
They gave us a tough game last time and we have to put that right.
It is a very important time in the season as we go into big, big games and have 13 matches to go.
They [Southampton] were dominant in the challenges and the duels. We just came out of a very tough game at Man City, and maybe didn’t have the urgency to cope with that. We were a bit unlucky with three goals on the decisions of the referee as well.
At the Emirates, Arsenal have lost twice so far this season in the Premier League.
It is very rare that the Gunners lose more than one or two home games a season, so Wenger will be hoping to bounce back in the league from the defeat to Chelsea.
The message [this time] is that we play at home and we want to put things right and put a strong performance in because the strength we show at home now in the remaining games can be decisive.
The defeat against Chelsea was very unlucky, because our performance was right – it was not a Southampton performance.
Our performance, our energy level, our commitment and the quality of what we did was very good. It is an encouragement. Sometimes you have to raise a little bit above the result and keep the positives. In that game there were a lot of positives.
The Saints have added Charlie Austin to their attack who proved at Old Trafford he is a clinical finisher given time and space. If he is to start, the England striker will be one to watch amongst a very solid outfit who showed their potential in that 4 goal win last year.
