- Southampton are playing with confidence under new manager Ralph Hasenhüttl, Marc Albrighton believes
- Albrighton hopes the Foxes can get off to a swift start against the Saints on Saturday (3pm GMT kick-off)
- Free coverage of the game begins at 1pm GMT with the Pre-Match Pint
After Sunday’s disappointing loss to Newport County in the Emirates FA Cup Third Round, City resume their top-flight campaign with a fixture against Claude Puel’s former side.
The Foxes are unbeaten in their last four outings against the Saints, but Albrighton knows they will be an entirely different force under the stewardship of Ralph Hasenhüttl, who was appointed as manager last month following two successful years at RB Leipzig.
“The good thing about football is that you get the chance to put it right as quickly as possible,” Albrighton said. “We’ll aim to do that.
“We’re at home, so it makes it even better for us, we’ve got the crowd behind us and we’ll look to start well in the game and put last week to bed.
“We’ve had two close games against Southampton [this season]. I know they’re probably a different task now with a new manager. They play differently and they seem to be playing with a lot more confidence.
“They’ve been doing well of late, it’s going to be such a difficult game for us, but we’re capable of beating them, especially on our home turf as well. We want to make our home place a fortress, it used to be that, we’ve come away from that as late and we want to get back to it.”
Since Hasenhüttl arrived at St. Mary’s Stadium, Southampton have won two and drawn two of their eight fixtures in all competitions.
Albrighton knows that while City sit 11 positions higher and 15 points better off in the Premier League table, the encounter with Southampton will bring with it a difficult challenge.
The Leicester No.11 added: “They’re fighting for their lives. Southampton are a massive club, they have been for years now and it’s a team that should be in the Premier League, so they’re going to make sure that they do their utmost to stay in the Premier League.
“With a new manager comes a little bit of a fresh start for the whole squad. The players that haven’t been playing will have points to prove and everyone in the squad will have a point to prove to the manager to make sure that they’re on the teamsheet.”