PETER Crouch loves playing alongside Henri Camara - but knows that Kevin Phillips is ready to break up their strike partnership

The unlikely pairing of 6ft 7in Crouch and the lightning quick Camara kept fit-again leading scorer Phillips on the bench against West Brom at the Hawthorns on Tuesday night.

And Crouch is determined to do the best he can to keep it that way, after seeing Senegalese international Camara net four goals in three-and-a-half games since his arrival at St Mary's last month.

Crouch said: "Henri is a hugely talented player, he's come in and scored goals straight away and we complement each other pretty well.

"He reads my flick-ons and I like to think that I bring him into play and utilise his pace whenever I can because he's obviously extremely quick.

"He's good on the ball as well and likes to run at defenders which is exciting for the fans. When he's playing the opposition are scared of the ball in behind them because of his pace, and the partnership seems to be working at the moment.

"Myself and Kevin were playing well together when he arrived but credit to him for keeping Kevin out.

"We've got a lot of options because Kevin was doing extremely well before he got injured. But now we have three strikers, we'll hopefully score the goals that will keep us up.

"Myself and Henri are looking over our shoulders because we both know we've got to play well to stay in the team."

Eight-goal Crouch was only one behind top-scorer Phillips' tally before today's St Mary's clash against Arsenal.

And the £2m signing from Aston Villa was hoping to draw level with Phillips against an Arsenal side without the injured Sol Campbell (ankle).

He added: "No one needs me to say what a great player Sol Campbell is, I've played against him for Aston Villa and he's a tough opponent, but hopefully we can play like we did against Everton and cause Arsenal a few problems in his absence

"Arsenal will run rings round us if we sit back and let them play but we can take heart from our performance at Highbury when we were disappointed not to get three points.

"And since then we've got five new players who have fitted in brilliantly.

It's lifted the team because they're all big personalities and are the type of players we need to get out of the situation we're in."