Southampton has a pretty rich history in the Premier League. Despite never winning the competition, the Saints have played many seasons in the top flight. They've also had their fair share of run-ins with the big dogs, Arsenal most notably.
There was a time period, around 2014 to 2016, where you might have considered Southampton as Arsenal's bogey team. Of course, this was a pretty dark period for the Gunners, so they had more than one bogey team back then.
During 2014, 2015 and 2016, Arsenal and Southampton met eight times. Across those eight fixtures, the Saints won four games, drew two and lost two. They really did have Arsène Wenger's number back then.
However, one of the more transformative (for all the wrong reasons) results in the late Wenger period would have been losing 4-0 to Southampton. It certainly didn't help that this was Arsenal's second back-to-back loss against the Saints, also losing 2-0 in their previous encounter.
Southampton forced Wojciech Szczęsny out of Arsenal
This victory over Arsenal, the 2-0 that occurred on New Year's Day in 2015, is now revealed to have been the turning point for Arsène Wenger, and the moment he decided to sell Wojciech Szczęsny.
Speaking to Prime Video, Arsène Wenger sat down with Wojciech Szczęsny and recalled the decision to sell him. Despite being sold officially in 2017, Wenger admitted that he had contemplated it two years previously, when Szczęsny conceded four to Southampton.
Szczęsny said: "In the end, I knew I wanted to go to [Juventus], because you clearly let me know that was it. But I wanted to know if that decision was made then, in that moment, or was it made New Years Day at Southampton two years before? I felt that you made up your mind at Southampton and there was no changing your mind, no matter what I did."
It was a brutally raw question for Szczęsny to ask, but it was asked with respect, and it was met with even greater respect from Wenger.
Wenger responded to Szczęsny's question: "Southampton played a big part in my mind. Maybe I had the feeling that you were too comfortable, and that [Southampton game] reinforced my feeling."
Southampton became the beneficiaries of an Arsenal goalkeeper departure years later, when Aaron Ramsdale left the Emirates Stadium to join St Mary's Stadium. He only played for one season, and the less said about that season, the better.
What Southampton would've given to have a goalkeeper like Wojciech Szczęsny. The Polish goalkeeper has to be one of the most underrated goalkeepers of his generation.