Arsene Wenger "surprised" to see Southampton struggling

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that he is "quite surprised" to see Southampton in the Premier League relegation zone.

The Saints have endured a dreadful campaign, winning just five of their 31 matches to find themselves cut three points adrift of safety.

Next up for Southampton, who still have two games in hand to play on Crystal Palace directly above them, is a trip to Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.

Wenger admits that he did not expect the south coast side to be caught up in a relegation battle, which he puts down to a couple of different factors.

"Southampton are a team who have a good technical quality and I am quite surprised to find them where they are," he told reporters at his pre-match press conference.

"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.

"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."

Southampton have failed to win any of their last 22 away league meetings with Arsenal, losing 16 of those.