Saints head to North London knowing if they can achieve their first ever win At Arsenal then they will be in a great position to have a decent tilt at the Capital One Club.
It cannot be denied that going to Arsenal is not a task that many Saints sides have relished, indeed winning there is rarer than a Pompey fan admitting that statistically Saints have better support than the blue few, but for tonights Capital One Cup tie Saints go there with a better chance of achieving a rare win at the Gunners than perhaps at any other time in their history.
It cannot be denied that perhaps the main reason for that will be the fact that with a tough season where he is fighting on four fronts, this competition is not high on Arsene Wenger's priority list and with this game sandwiched between not only some tough Premier League games but equally tough Champions League ones as well. all in a short period, it would be very surprising if the French Manager did not make multiple changes tonight.
But eqally Saints go there in fine form themselves and even if this was a League fixture with all the Arsenal big guns out we are well equipped to give them a good run for their money.
For Saints this competition is their best chance of glory this season and with Manchester United already out and more Premier league clubs guaranteed to follow, Saints know that there can only be a maximum of 9 Premier League clubs in the last 16.
The chance is there, unlike last season's manager, Ronald Koeman knows the value of playing n the Europa Cup, it ups your profile, gets you used to playing on the continent and makes it easier to keep and sign players.
It is the natural progression for any club who have aspirations of making the Champions League and Koeman knows that there is a lot of work to do before we are in that position.
So tonight unlike his counterpart in the Arsenal dug out his side is likely to be approaching full strength, one change that looks likely to happen though will be in the centre of defence where Yoshida is not fit after the win at Swansea, Toby Alderweireld is probably not going to be risked so it looks like a fulldebut for Florin Gardos, however Koeman will be a lot happier to do so after the Romanian got 45 minutes under his belt in Wales and will be a little more aclimatised.
Other than that and any changes will probably be purely tactical, although the big question will be what role Sadio Mane will play,Koeman has confirmed he is in the squad and confirmed that his fitness is good and his two week break will have refreshed him rather than been a problem, but does Koeman throw him straight in or hold him in reserve on the bench.
I think he will go for the latter, although Arsenal will have a second string out, it will be a well organised team, Saints will need to keep their shape and discipline and when they have the game in their control go for the jugular and it could be that with Mane they will be looking for him to come on and finish the game.
Either way its a good problem to have and a far better situation than last years two cup capitulations at the hands of Sunderland.
There is an air of optimism around St Mary's these days and its because we have achievable and realistic targets in our sights, whilst also looking at the long game and a good finish in the Premier league, Koeman's way of working is turning out to be good for Saints because he does things step by step and doesnt try to go from one extreme to another n terms of achievable targets, the first step in that direction will be at the Emirates tonight and 5,000 Saints supporters will find out whether we are about to embark on something truly great.
Key man
Morgan Schneiderlin
The midfielder has been linked with Arsenal every summer yet they never seem to bid, this is his stage and i think he will want to strut around on it and show Arsene Wenger what he has missed out on and indeed why he should really be getting his cheque book out.