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...