By Tony Attwood
Southampton sit seventh in the Championship, 20 points behind the leaders, and just one point outside the play-off places. And since for them, regaining their Premier League place will be seen as far more valuable than getting to or even winning the FA Cup final, that is presumably where the main focus for Southampton will be.
But of course, beating a Premier League team is a prime attraction for lower league clubs, so this certainly doesn’t mean they won’t be doing all they can to beat Arsenal this evening. Yet they will be aware that at the moment, Middlesbrough, Ipswich, Hull City and Wrexham hold the four playoff places, with Millwall and Coventry the top two in the automatic promotion spots.
So far in the FA Cup, Southampton have beaten Doncaster Rovers away (2-3), Leicester City at home 2-1, and Fulham away 0-1. And as you will have noted, in each case this has been by just the one goal. So a couple from Arsenal might be enough.
The media, of course, is making quite a lot of the fact that Arsenal don’t win very often at St Mary’s Stadium (seven times in 18 in fact). However, Southampton’s position one point off the play-offs will be a distraction.
Meanwhile, those in the media who are desperate to put Arsenal down, are now looking back to 26 December 2015 when Southampton beat Arsenal 4-0. And that was indeed something of an oddity since it was the only defeat for Arsenal in a run of 12 matches. That season Arsenal finished second in the league, eight points behind Leicester. Southampton finished sixth.
But Southampton have been wavering of late and have only beaten Arsenal once in the last 11 games between the two sides, that being a 1-0 at their ground in April 2022, with the season all but done.
Otherwise, in the last ten games, it has been five Arsenal wins, four draws and just the one victory for Southampton.
But for Southampton supporters of a superstitious nature, help is at hand as it usually is, for the last time Southampton managed to beat Arsenal was on 16 April 2022 with a 1-0 victory, the goal being scored by Jan Bednarek Annd the coincidence is that that was also on Easter Saturday.
However, as we all know, coincidences are just that – coincidences, and there is nothing to say that this coincidence increases the chances of Southampton beating Arsenal again.
Perhaps more to the point is the fact that Southampton have reached the semi-finals 13 times, but only went on to win the FA Cup once. Indeed, they reached the final in 2003 when they were beaten by Arsenal.
But perhaps more to the point, we should also note that Arsenal are the most successful FA Cup club in history, having won it 14 times starting in 1930.
The club’s best run was between 2002 and 2005, when the Cup was won three times, and then 2014 to 2017 when again, the Cup was won three times in four years.
Southampton’s successes in the Cup are more modest, having got to the semi-finals 13 times before today’s game. But we should also note that this is a big moment for them as this is the 50th anniversary of their FA Cup win in 1976,
However, they were beaten by Arsenal in the final in 2003, which was one of those games played in Cardiff, as Wembley Stadium was being rebuilt at the time.
So the question for Southampton is, do they keep pushing for promotion back to the Premier League or do they throw as much energy into the FA Cup, knowing that doing so could leave them not only without a Cup win if things go wrong, but also, if anyone gets injured, could screw up their attetmpts to get back to the Premier League, which of course is where the money is.
And there is also the fact that on Tuesday they play Wrexham, and the significance of that can be seen from the Championship table.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coventry City | 40 | 25 | 8 | 7 | 84 | 42 | 42 | 83 |
| 2 | Millwall | 40 | 21 | 9 | 10 | 55 | 45 | 10 | 72 |
| 3 | Middlesbrough | 40 | 20 | 11 | 9 | 60 | 39 | 21 | 71 |
| 4 | Ipswich Town | 38 | 19 | 12 | 7 | 67 | 39 | 28 | 69 |
| 5 | Hull City | 40 | 20 | 7 | 13 | 63 | 58 | 5 | 67 |
| 6 | Wrexham | 40 | 17 | 13 | 10 | 62 | 53 | 9 | 64 |
| 7 | Southampton | 39 | 17 | 12 | 10 | 63 | 48 | 15 | 63 |
Next up – thoughts on the team and the latest on the injuries
