Mark Hughes is facing a defensive dilemma ahead of a decisive week in Saints’ season.

The Saints boss played with a back five at Arsenal and was pleased with how it went, as his team contained the Gunners and only leaked goals due to individual mistakes, and what he felt was a spot of bad luck.

It was likely to be a template he would replicate as Saints played another Premier League big gun in the shape of Chelsea - both this weekend and the following Sunday, when they face the Blues again in the FA Cup semi-final.

However, confirmation that Jack Stephens will be suspended for three matches for his late sending off at the Emirates Stadium could scupper that plan.

Stephens got involved in a stoppage time altercation with Jack Wilshere, shoving the Arsenal midfielder to the ground after virtually having the shirt ripped off his back as he tried to press forward.

It meant he saw red and picked up the ban, which rules him out of the two Chelsea matches as well as the trip to Leicester a week today.

It is a blow for Hughes, who now needs to adapt his team selection again to deal with the loss of Stephens.

Hughes does have an experienced and recognised centre half pairing in the shape of Maya Yoshida and Wesley Hoedt to call upon, meaning fielding a back four is not an issue.

However, if he wanted to play with three centre halves then his options are more limited.

Jan Bednarek provides the other central defensive option at the club, but he has not made a single Premier League appearance since joining the club last summer, and would likely be too big a risk to take at such a key time in the season.

Hughes’ other options for another centre half would involve moving players out of position.

Ryan Bertrand has played in a central defensive three for Saints, but with Matt Targett out at Fulham on loan and Sam McQueen having been struggling with injury, it leaves the left side looking exposed.

All other options would mean fielding at least one player out of position.

Hughes will likely want to approach the Chelsea game at St Mary’s on Saturday in a similar fashion to Arsenal, trying to contain the Blues’ outstanding attacking players and restricting them to playing in front of Saints.

That then leaves Saints the ability to try and hurt Chelsea on the counter attack as they did effectively against Arsenal.

With time running out in the season Hughes knows he needs to try and find a winning formula.