Manchester United's Ole says Southampton 9-0 is a 'one-off'

Former Saints youngster Alex Jankewitz was sent off moments into the Old Trafford contest back in February, before Jan Bednarek also joined him for an early shower towards the end of the match.

The Red Devils swept aside Leeds with a 5-1 victory during the 2021-22 Premier League opening weekend, as Bruno Fernandes netted a hat-trick and Paul Pogba starred with a sensational four assists.

Saints will be boosted by the news of skipper James Ward-Prowse’s new long-term contract signed yesterday, but are still without a centre-back replacement for Jannik Vestergaard going into Sunday’s contest.

Read more 

James Ward-Prowse signed new contract to end transfer talk

Southampton v Man United St Mary's rules, guidance, Covid-19

James Ward-Prowse relishes 'challenging' Saints captain role

But Solskjaer warned against complacency, admitting: “That game was a one-off.

“That was a special game when you get a lad sent off in the first minute. I don’t count that game at all.

“Always with Ralph’s (Hasenhuttl) teams you get high energy, high pressing and belief in themselves.

“Like they did last season, we got lucky or whatever you want to call it and turned their two goals lead into a 3-2 win for us. We know every time we travel down there it’s a difficult game.”

Saints will be desperate to avoid a repeat of the most recent United clash

The United manager has a wealth of resources at his disposal as he targets a first Premier League title for the club since 2012-13.

Amongst those that didn’t even start was mega-money summer signing Jadon Sancho, and former Real Madrid and World Cup-winning centre-back Raphael Varane could be in the squad for a first time as they travel to the south-coast.

Asked if they’d be included from the start, Solskjaer cryptically added: “Well, you’ll see on Sunday [Varane and Sancho].

“They’ve worked well, they’ve had minutes, we’ve had a very good week ourselves and we’ll see who is making the flight down on Saturday."