Previewing the final Premier League challenge Arsenal can present at the St. Mary's.
On Sunday, Southampton are scheduled to sign off from Premier League football in the favour of another brief Championship spell. With St. Mary's as the venue, there will be some emotional feelings among the Saints but the players shouldn't get carried away too much.
Else, they risk another slamming from Chris Sutton even if they walked from the fixture with a point. Or even worse, that criticism might come from the ever-patient home fans shall they ship in a handful of goals on the weekend.
Hence, the checklist for this objective less game is clear, end the season with any scoreline less than a 3-0 humiliation. And the two halves of rock-solid defending against Manchester City should serve as a good benchmark for approaching this matchday.
Southampton face massive Arsenal test to see out the campaign
But will it be enough in front of Arsenal? That can't be said with confidence.
The reason being that Southampton's defence played one of the bravest opening 45 minutes against Arsenal the last time around, only to get crumbled easily in the second half.
On top of that, Arsenal have been at their usual dominating self though they lack the trophies to back their success. Despite that, Mikel Arteta's side are arguably the best in England when it comes to away outings as they are undefeated on the road this year.
Well, that's the perks of having players like Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and William Saliba who are some of the world's elite performers in their positions.
Talking about the former, no Southampton fan can forget how Saka led the Gunners fightback months ago, when the Saints came in touching distance of delivering an unexpected upset at the Emirates.
Low-key, the Transfermarkt's head-to-head stats also suggest that Southampton have given a tough contest to Arsenal in the recent years.
Hence, points are definitely on the cards and let's see whether the Saints can even go as far as claiming a third and final Premier League win.