|
Mark Hughes has revealed his admiration for the "outstanding'' Arsene Wenger as Southampton prepare for Sunday's trip to Arsenal, but says the competitive rivalry between them can get "a little bit silly." Welshman Hughes urgently requires Southampton to pick up three points at the Emirates Stadium as they fight to remain in the Premier League. There is significant history between Hughes and Wenger, following the Arsenal manager's previous refusal to shake Hughes' hand and Hughes accusing him of being a bad loser amid wider tension between them that extends back to the Southampton manager's time at Blackburn and Manchester City. The pressure presently surrounding his new club and which led to Hughes being sacked by Stoke earlier this year is similar to that under which Wenger consistently works. Hughes was asked if he felt long-term criticism of the Frenchman was unfair, and he said: "Absolutely. He's done a remarkable job: he's an outstanding manager and has been for a huge number of years. "I'm a manager as well so I know how difficult it is to have longevity in your career, and he trumps me by about 10-15 years, so he's not doing bad. "I've got the utmost respect for Arsene. Don't get me wrong, he wants to win and so do I and sometimes we probably get a little bit silly, but there you go. [It's] not always on my instigation, by the way.'' Southampton will hand a late fitness test to Mario Lemina -- previously struggling with a virus -- before Hughes selects his XI to start on Sunday, though a groin injury means Sam McQueen has already been ruled out. The quality of the squad Hughes recently inherited means he remains surprised that they have struggled as they have. But he hinted at their complacency when he said: "If you talk to people around the club to get an insight on their take on what's gone wrong this year, there's a bit of debate and discussion that they didn't realise was slowly building to the situation we find ourselves in now. "That can happen, you think, 'We'll be okay, we'll win next week,' and then all of a sudden you're down to seven or eight games, so it can sometimes catch people unaware. "I don't think we have any problem in that regard now, because everyone totally understands where we are now and what we have to do.'' And Hughes' opposite number Wenger, whose Arsenal were pushed all the way by Southampton at St Mary's earlier in the season, shared the Southampton manager's surprise at their troubles. "Southampton are a team who have a good technical quality and I am quite surprised to find them where they are,'' Wenger said when asked about their plight. "They gave us a very good game this season. Honestly I don't know, maybe they had injuries, lost Virgil van Dijk (to Liverpool) as well and needed time to recover from that.'' Wenger remains in charge at Arsenal despite several protests over the last year calling for him to be removed. But the Frenchman believes it is now more difficult for teams to stand by an under-fire manager as supporters call for them to be axed. "It is part of the modern game, it is why clubs have to continue to work with what they believe is right,'' he said. "It is certainly more difficult because the pressure from the fans is bigger everywhere now. "I don't know how it is at Southampton but they have shown remarkable work. If you think, they were in League One and when you think back now to the quality of players they had, it is quite impressive.'' While Sunday's game is important for Saints, Arsenal will have an eye on the second leg of their Europa League quarterfinal at CSKA Moscow four days later. Wenger saw his side win the home fixture 4-1 to all but assure themselves of a place in the final four and he conceded there is likely to be rotation among his squad this weekend. "We are focusing on the Premier League and the Europa League with the squad,'' he added. "We rotate a little bit from one game to the other after considering the recovery and the slight injuries or risk of injuries. "As well we consider that some people, like [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang, are not available in the Europa League but they are available in the Premier League. So the rotation is quite natural.'' Someone who definitely miss the game is Henrikh Mkhitaryan as a knee injury forced him to limp out of the first leg on Thursday night, with Wenger fearing the Armenia international has suffered ligament damage. "Micki came off and he will be out for Sunday,'' Wenger confirmed. "He has a scan and the fear is that his medial knee ligament has been touched. We'll know more about that soon. For how long he will be out, I don't know.''
|
