As Ralph Hasenhüttl prepares his Southampton team for another showdown with West Ham, he is hoping this will be the time that his fortune against the London side finally changes.
All three of Saints' games against the Hammers under Hasenhüttl so far have ended in defeat, most recently in mid-December when they fell to a 1-0 loss at St Mary's.
ralph hasenhüttl
we are always looking to show what we have developed. we want to go there and show that we can do it better.
southampton manager
That was a result that left Southampton 18th in the table and in significant trouble as the Christmas break approached. However, only ten matches on from then, the picture is now very different, with Saints having produced a tremendous run to lift themselves well clear of the bottom three, while West Ham have slipped into those positions.
"We are always looking to show what we have developed and how our game has changed, and this is the next good opportunity," said Hasenhüttl.
"In away games we have taken 20 points so far, so we want to go there and show that we can do it better than last year.
"I'm expecting a difficult one. We lost the first one this season against them, and lost both last season, so we haven't been really successful against this team. The last game is gone and now we are focusing on this difficult challenge and we want to go there with the best possible performance.
"They are a physically strong team and are defensively good organised. They are sometimes a little bit deeper sitting, but also with good counter pressing, and they are a physically strong team. This caused us a few problems.
"We had a few chances last time, and scored once with a disallowed goal from Ingsy. We didn't play bad, but we haven't been clinical enough, a little bit unlucky in some moments, and in the end we didn't take any points against them."
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