Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl is expecting Norwich City to be “a nasty opponent” when the sides meet at St Mary’s on Friday night.

Saints provided the opposition for Dean Smith’s first game in charge of the Canaries following the departure of Daniel Farke – and a ramped-up Carrow Road pushed City to a 2-1 win, their first home success of the season.

Hasenhuttl says there is a marked difference between the team Smith inherited and the one he has now.

“Different shape, different behaviour,” he said at his pre-match press conference. “Still brave with the ball, but against the ball, much more aggressive with their counter-pressing.

“All the tools are there for being a nasty opponent for us and this is what I expect.”

The Austrian boss admitted City gave his team a tough time back in November when Grant Hanley scored a 79th-minute winner.

"We lost against them in this game - it was tough for us,” he said. “The momentum they had on their side. We had good chances in the first half that normally we must win the game, but in the end we lost because of conceding two easy goals.

“He (Smith) still has a long way to go with this team, but they've shown in the past games that the performances are much better than the results. You can see there's a clear way of playing football, a clear way of how they want to play and this is not an easy opponent, not an easy game for us.”

While City are desperate to climb off the foot of the table again, Hasenhuttl believes a top-half finish for his team would be a "good job" this season.

Saints overwhelmed Everton 2-0 on the south coast last weekend to move into 10th place in the Premier League and are unbeaten in the top flight since January 15, a run which has included draws against Manchester City and Manchester United and a win at Tottenham.

However, Hasenhuttl remained grounded when asked where the club could finish if the current run of form continues.

"We know the table, we know that Brighton is one point ahead of us, the next opponent has seven points more now," the Saints boss said.

"We speak this way about teams like Tottenham or Arsenal, if we can end up in this part of the table at the end of the season it means that we will have done a good job so far because the clubs behind us also have quality and will take points.

"So we have to consistently perform and when we do this there is always a chance to stay where we are in the moment.

"We have shown that we can compete even with the top teams in the league, we have drawn twice against Man City and that gives you a lot of belief and also the other games against the big teams in the moment we have shown that we are good,

"We have improved our game, the young lads are getting better, we have learned how to play the way that we want to play and this is the reason why we are successful at the moment."

The hosts have no fresh injury concerns, with left-back Romain Perraud back from illness after a one-game absence but goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, centre-back Lyanco and winger Nathan Tella are still sidelined.

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