Russell Martin regret not signing ‘excellent’ £20m gem outscoring his Southampton strikers

Russell Martin will be desperately trying to concoct a plan for his Southampton side to get a result against Arsenal on Saturday.

After a terrible performance on Monday night that saw them lose 3-1 to Bournemouth, Southampton’s journey to The Emirates to play title challengers Arsenal is probably the last thing they need.

Russell Martin is aware that a merciless Arsenal team may cause a great deal of chaos if his players play any worse than they did against Bournemouth.

Southampton appears unlikely to win considering they have only one point in the Premier League, have not kept a clean sheet, and have only scored three goals in six games. They might also pose a far bigger threat if they had completed one significant deal in the summer.

Southampton rue not signing Liam Delap in the summer

Martin prioritized finding a center-forward this summer, especially since Che Adams left after his contract expired.

In order to provide Southampton the firepower it needed to stay in the Premier League, Ben Brereton Diaz and Cameron Archer were both bought in place of Sekou Mara, who was also sold.

Both players have yet to score a league goal, and Martin chose to play without a designated striker against Bournemouth last time out, so neither has yet demonstrated that they are capable of doing this.

This is a pretty damning indictment of the lack of faith Martin has in his strikers but it could have been so different had they got a deal for Liam Delap across the line.