Saints The Arsenal The Preview Saturday, 15th Dec 2018 15:18 It's the dawning of a new era At Saints as Ralph Hasenhuttl takes charge for the first time at St Mary's can he achieve an unlikely victory. Ralph Hasenhuttl makes his home debut on Sunday afternoon and hopefully with the benefit of working with the squad for a week aligned with the return of some key players through injury he might spring a surprise or two. His main decision though will be in the back four, Cedric is likely to return at right back and Bednarek retain his place, but who will partner him is the key decsision, Jannik Vestergaard had a decent game at Cardiff aside from the sloppy backpass that led to the only goal of the game. So will the Austrian feel that he should stick with that partnership or make a change by bringing back Wesley Hoedt for a partnership rarely used so perhaps worth a try. Matt Targett looks set to continue at left back with Ryan Bertrand still out injured. The midfield is a little easier, it is likely that he will use the same formation as at Cardiff giving three strong tacklers in the centre with Redmond and Armstrong supporting the central striker. Who that will be is open to debate, Charlie Austin looks good coming off the bench late on, but not so good when he starts, Manolo Gabbiadini has scored a couple of crucial goals in the last year but done little else, Shane Long comes in for stick from some fans but has done well this season before his injury and Danny Ings when fit is the only true automatic choice. Whether Hasenhuttl will want to risk either Ings or Long from the start is open to debate so it could be a choice between Austin and Gabbiadini. Hopefully though the fans will see a much better organised and motivated team than they have seen prior to Hasenhuttl's arrival and the hope is that this aligned with motivation will at worst see a performance that bodes well for the future and at best sees it rewarded with a point of dare I say it a win. In the main Saints have competed this season, they have been let down by poor defending, it says a lot that everyone of the nine goals conceded in the last four games has been down to defensive error and I mean every single one. The reality is cut out the errors and we are not a bad side, we should have won at Fulham, should have beaten Manchester United having been two up and should have got a point at Cardiff if not more, that is at least six points dropped that with better concentration we would have won, the table would now look a lot different. But we can't go on ifs and buts, what has gone on before should be firmly left in the past and we should look only forward, Ralph Hasenhuttl is taking every player on his merits from now, not what he did in the past and the fans have to do that as well. If Stuart Armstrong can improve so greatly as he has done in the last month, then so can Elyounoussi, Hoedt and several others. Sunday will be hard, Arsenal are a good side, but we can draw our line in the sand and look forward not backwards. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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