After turning round our Europa League tie against BATE Borisov, we avenged the Christmas defeat at St. Mary’s with a 2-0 win over Southampton.

Early goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were enough to win us the game, but in truth it should have been a lot more after a blistering first half performance. In an entertaining game, Leno was also busy making several smart saves to keep The Saints at bay.

On a day when United v Liverpool, and Chelsea v Man City in the League Cup failed to live up to the overhype Sky billing, a day after Spurs lost to Burnley, this was a vital win for Emery’s men.

The win keeps up our attempt to get back into the top four, while Southampton are now struggling near the relegation places. We now have four wins in five games, with another winnable game against Bournemouth at home this midweek.

Pepe could do a job.

So following on from the impressive win over the Saints, we now entertain Bournemouth this week before heading to Wembley to face the vermin of Tottenham.

Final thought, but if Spurs were to lose at out-of-form Chelsea and we manage to beat Bournemouth, we could move within a single point of Spurs if we can notch a win on Saturday lunchtime putting pressure on the teams around us.