Southampton interim manager Ruben Selles has breathed new life into the bottom of the table outfit. That’s according to goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, who insists the Saints will travel to Leeds United on Saturday with heaps of belief and confidence as they look to pile the misery on their relegation rivals at Elland Road.
Selles, who has been in charge at St Mary’s since the sacking of Nathan Jones earlier this month, led Southampton to a shock 1-0 win at Chelsea last weekend. James Ward-Prowse’s free-kick was the difference at Stamford Bridge and that was enough to bring the club to within three points of safety.
They could climb out of the bottom three entirely with a result in West Yorkshire, depending on how Bournemouth fare against Manchester City and that would be enough to push Leeds to the foot of the table. United will have new head coach Javi Gracia in the dugout, if his work permit comes through in time, and they’ll hope to see progress.
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However, Bazunu is confident that under Selles Southampton are building up momentum and they’ll be difficult to stop.
"I think the biggest thing is Ruben [Selles] has brought a lot of belief to us as a team, he’s brought a lot of passion," Bazunu said, as per Hampshire Live.
"We all admire him. Since he’s come in, we can see how hard-working he is. We’ve just got to look toward this next game, prepare for it in the right way, and look to bring this momentum into Saturday.
"We can't look too far ahead. We've just got to take it one game at a time, one training session at a time and if we continue to bring the level of performance as we did against Chelsea we've more chance than anyone."
The two sides last met in August, playing out a 2-2 draw with Leeds surrendering a two-goal lead on the south coast. The stakes are a lot higher this time around, though, it’s fair to say.
"It was my first home game in the Premier League. It was really special to play at St Mary's in front of the fans," Bazunu added about the reverse fixture. "We've come a long way from then.
“There's been a lot of ups and a lot of downs but we're in a really good position now to go and attack this game on Saturday. Similarly to the way that it's been a long road for us it will have been for them as well.
“They've had a lot of ups and downs like every team in the league. And it was such a long time ago that I think we'll be doing more of an analysis work on probably previous matches they played in the last few weeks.
"But another thing is that we've just got to focus on us. If we play to our levels then they'll have to be worried about us just as much as we are of them."
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