Wigan seek to wreck Hughes’ Saints debut, FA Cup a big deal for Chelsea and Leicester, and Zaha returns to lift Palace’s spirits
It is tempting to suggest that Mark Hughes has already made the biggest contribution that he can make to Southampton’s fight against relegation – in the form of his final 18 months at Stoke – but Sunday’s FA Cup joust with Wigan gives him a chance to start showing that he has the knowhow to stimulate an improvement at his new club. At Stoke he initially wrought good performances from mercurial types and he will have to do that quicksmart with Southampton, where the likes of Dusan Tadic, Nathan Redmond and Sofiane Boufal have lacked consistency all season. Hughes also needs to get Mario Lemina playing further forward – there is really no need for him to keep taking the ball off Southampton’s centre-backs just outside his own area – and, most of all, the new manager should play with two strikers, a ploy to which his predecessor, Mauricio Pellegrino, was reluctant to commit. While Hughes tries to make a difference fast, Wigan will stick to the same approach that has already enabled them to oust Bournemouth, West Ham and Manchester City from the FA Cup this season. PD
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