Tomorrow we travel to St Mary’s to face Southampton and with the two sides separated by just 1 point in the Premier League both will be aiming to win on Saturday to increase their hopes of European football next season.
Possibly though, the biggest story going into this game though surrounds our manager. Mauricio Pochettino returns to Southampton for the first time since leaving to join Tottenham last May and will be looking for a victory over his former side. The reception is expected to be quite hostile as the Southampton fans still feel bitter about Poch leaving them at the time he did, in the earlier game at White Hart Lane this season, Pochettino received a lot of heat from the Saints supporters.
Pochettino joined Southampton in January 2013 replacing Nigel Atkins who was controversially sacked. Although he was an unpopular appointment at the time he soon won over the fans with his high-energy pressing style that bamboozled other sides and promoted many of Southampton’s brilliant young English starlets who became very impressive in Mauricio’s 18-month spell down at St Mary’s.
Pochettino insisted that he always has a place in his heart for Southampton, a view supported by current Saints manager Ronald Koeman who’s taken over the mantle on the South coast superbly and has exceeded all expectations. He’s on the verge of breaking the records that Pochettino set last season for points, wins and goals scored. A while back Poch dismissed Koeman’s success at Southampton claiming he’d left him with a much easier job there than the one the Argentinian took on at Spurs, the Dutchman laughed it off but we’ll see after Saturday’s game who laughs last.
That hostility will create an atmosphere tomorrow that the player will need to be up to the challenge for tomorrow. After getting back to winning ways away at Newcastle a week ago we need to win again tomorrow if were to finish our season strongly.
