Ralph Hasenhuttl is backing his Saints side to cause an upset against Arsenal today.

Hasenhuttl won his first game in charge of the St Mary’s side when they beat the Gunners 3-2 back in December.

And the Austrian reckons his team can do the same again this afternoon.

Hasenhuttl said: “Every game is difficult, but I think in the first game we showed that we can bring this surprising result.

“We showed that we were defending very well and that is the key part.

“They play differently to the last three opponents in the league.

“We are not 100 per cent sure what shape they will come but we have got a few changes in mind that we can do with our team, so it will be interesting technically.”

It took a Charlie Austin header in the reverse fixture to win it in dramatic fashion for Saints.

Arsenal playmaker Henrikh Mkhitaryan hit a brace for the north London side, who were on an unbeaten run of 21 games when they visited St Mary’s, but it wasn’t enough to see them win.

Since then, the Gunners have had mixed fortunes in the Premier League, dropping out of the top four places.

However, they responded to their critics with a resounding 3-0 win in their Europa League tie with FC BATE Borisov on Thursday night.

This leaves them heading into today’s match in a buoyant mood, but Hasenhuttl was quick to point out that his Saints team have only lost once on the road since his arrival.

The Austrian added: “I think we saw in the first game that they don’t need a lot of chances to score two times in the first game.

“It was also quality from us and in the away game since I am here we only lost against Cardiff and the others we could keep good results.

“It would be a good mixture between defensive balance and a good transition forward to create

problems for Arsenal like we did in the first game.

“It will be interesting because every manager is always looking for changes if something doesn’t work so will see who has the better decisions.”