Southampton versus Arsenal in the FA Cup quarter finals is now set to be a sold out affair at St. Mary's.
Indeed, the Saints' official X account has confirmed this news, with zero tickets available, as fans of both Southampton and the Gunners are set to be packed to the rafters, to take in the Cup tie on Saturday evening.
For Southampton's sake, they'll be hoping that the tie is kept competitive during the early stages, as the nightmare scenario would be that the Saints choke under the pressure of a bumper crowd, knowing the Premier League leaders are visiting.
Reasons for Southampton to be quietly confident
Southampton have been here before in playing the North Londoners in the FA Cup at home, and their recent record is positive, with a clash between the two sides in 2021, in the esteemed competition, seeing Mikel Arteta's men get knocked out due to an unfortunate Gabriel own-goal.
Arsenal's defence of the FA Cup that season was in tatters, due to the Saints pulling off a Cup upset, with the following year also seeing Southampton collect a memorable home triumph over the Gunners.
This time, around, it was in the Premier League, as a Jan Bednarek header silenced the away faithfuls.
Of course, fast forwarding to the present, Arsenal are the overwhelming favourites, as they currently sit a division above Tonda Eckert's men, at the very top of the Premier League pile.
But, the FA Cup was made for monumental shocks to occur, and Southampton have a star in their ranks who has never actually lost to Arsenal, surprisingly.
The Southampton star who has never lost to Arsenal
Not many of Eckert's personnel will have ever played against Arsenal in their careers to date.
Indeed, Finn Azaz has only ever been an EFL journeyman across his varied career so far, with his only taster of action against the Gunners coming when he was an U18 starlet at West Brom.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis has much the same story when it comes to his involvement against the North London titans over the years, with the one-time England international hailing from the illustrious Manchester City academy - once upon a time - before cutting his teeth at St. Mary's.
During his time at City, he regularly did battle with the Gunners at an U21s level, and looking at his record in this age bracket, he has never actually lost to Arsenal, on U21 pitches alone.
His three past meetings include two comprehensive wins, as the youthful City ranks he was involved with - that boasted Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers - beat Arsenal 4-1 and 4-2 in quick succession, in 2020 and 2021.
Despite City boasting players who would go on to be world beaters in the Premier League in these squads, Harwood-Bellis would actually get in on the goalscoring act himself during the 4-2 victory.
With a confident Championship campaign currently unfolding for the Stockport-born colossus, as well, with ten clean sheets collected from 34 league outings, the self-assured number six will hope this record doesn't come to a crashing halt when Mikel Arteta and Co. come to town over Easter.
Southampton will be tested, obviously, but the die-hard St. Mary's masses will hopefully bear witness to another unforgettable day out against Arsenal.
