Southampton boss Mark Hughes urges players to fight against relegation

Southampton manager Mark Hughes has issued a rallying cry to his players ahead of this weekend's Premier League clash with Arsenal.

The Potters boss urged his players to "roll their sleeves up" and fight against relegation in their remaining fixtures, starting with the game at the Emirates.

Southampton head into the Gunners showdown inside the relegation zone, off the back of a 3-0 defeat to fellow relegation strugglers West Ham United.

"We need to be more resilient when momentum goes against us," Sky Sports News quotes Hughes as saying. "I've told them this week what is acceptable in games and what isn't.

"We've got to go there and get a positive result. The bare minimum is a good performance for the travelling Saints fans and to be positive in our outlook.

"West Ham was something that we can learn from, now we know what is ahead of us in terms of Arsenal, and clearly we can't dwell on performances like West Ham. You have got to draw a line under it and take the lessons learnt from it and move on to the next one."

Southampton are two points from a position of safety with a game in hand on Crystal Palace above them ahead of this weekend's fixtures.