Ronald Koeman has warned that Saints need to be wary of Arsenal’s desire for revenge when they take their three game winning run to the Emirates Stadium tonight.

Saints hammered the Gunners 4-0 at St Mary’s on Boxing Day, which was their only victory in a disappointing run of ten matches.

However, since then Saints have come good again, with a hat-trick of successive Premier League wins, the last coming against Manchester United at Old Trafford, firing them back into the top half of the table.

Now they face the title chasing Gunners on their own turf, with Koeman believing Arsene Wenger’s side will still be hurting from their Christmas thrashing on the south coast.

He said: “Maybe they will have a revenge feeling what happened on Boxing Day.

“Maybe it’s the revenge what they like to show that can be the reason that it’s more difficult.

“We know it’s a different one.

“The 4-0 is behind us and don’t count any more.

“Maybe it makes it more difficult, but we know Arsenal is strong.

“They are in my opinion one of the two or three teams who have a lot of individual qualities and they can control very much the game.

“We know if we have good defending, good organisation, we have a good transition to attack what we didn’t have against Man United in the first half then we can make problems for them.”

With Saints playing three centre halves they have the possibility to strangle the Gunners’ attacking threat and pose a problem themselves on the break.

Charlie Austin is in contention for a first start after his dramatic winner off the bench at Old Trafford, with only Steven Davis unavailable through injury.

“They are an offensive team Arsenal. They like to go forward and to go forward with a lot of players,” reckoned Koeman.

“That makes maybe the weakness if they lose the ball it’s a lot of space.

“If you saw the second half against Arsenal we punished them that we had that space in our transition.”

Playing in that way could make Sadio Mane a key man for Saints with his pace on the counter attack.

However, Mane’s form has been a little patchy of late, with the Senegalese failing to show his quality in the final third with chances going begging.

Koeman reflected: “Worried not because I think every player has difficult moments in the season.

“He’s not playing bad but he’s not really that level what he normally can show, that’s true.

“He’s working hard and he will come back in his strengths for the team.”

Saints are likely to have to deal with the threat of Alexis Sanchez, who is back from injury and ready to get his Premier League season going again.

“He’s one of the players who is difficult to stop because they have so high qualities,” admitted Koeman.

“He’s fast, technical wise he’s perfect.

“They have more players, very good midfield players. They have Ozil. They have so many possibilities and players with high qualities.

“That’s Arsenal and that’s why Arsenal is fighting to win the title and that’s normal.”