Austin expects to hit the goal trail with Southampton

New Southampton striker Charlie Austin is hoping he can find the net regularly in the Premier League.

The former QPR forward grabbed the winning goal against Manchester United on Saturday after coming off the substitutes’ bench as a 79th-minute replacement for Sadio Mane to make his debut following a £4million move.

And he feels the fact that Southampton are pushing for a third consecutive top-10 finish, along with their free-flowing style of play, makes the switch an ideal move for him.

He told talkSPORT: “With Southampton, we are going into games as favourites and wanting to be in that top 10. That is what drew me to go to Southampton – they are a club on the up.

“A top-10 finish is a minimum for them really and I wanted to be involved in that. For me, look how many chances they create, it’s certainly what me and centre forwards thrive on.

“Watching on Saturday and seeing the superb work Shane Long put in and the amount of chances they create – look, I am going to eat it up really.

“I need to lay the ball off, get it to the creative players and wide men, then when the ball comes into the box, my movement takes me in there.”

Southampton have won three consecutive Premier League games and next face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.

“We have got nine points in our last three games now and we’ve got a tough game coming up away at Arsenal,” added the 26-year-old.

“We’ll go there full of confidence and will try to come away with a result. We’ve just got to try and keep this unbeaten run going.”