Stuart Armstrong, Southampton’s midfielder and Joe Aribo’s team mate said He is a talented player and welcomed his addition to the team. The two have teamed up before, when Armstrong was playing for Celtic in the Scottish league, and on Wednesday they were instrumental in the Saints’ 3-1 preseason victory over AS Monaco after coming back from a goal down.
The 30-year-old jokingly stated he did not want to discuss the Old Firm rivalry before revealing the qualities the Super Eagle is bringing to Southampton. “We don’t talk about that [Old Firm derbies], I didn’t want to speak to him as soon as he came in – I thought I’d let him lie for a week,” Armstrong told the Southampton website. “You can see in training the quality he has – he is very powerful, strong, technical, keeps the ball tight and he is very composed with his movement and his passing, so he is a very good addition, experienced, and we are very happy to have him.”
Aribo and Armstrong combined for the team’s second goal against the French side and the former Monaco man has commented on the goal. “Always happy with a goal, but I think it was more in the pass from Joe – I wasn’t expecting him to play it across like he did, but it was very nice and I’m very happy that he gave me a nice quick shot on the turn,” he added. The attacker was happy with the way the Saints played and stated they are getting their rhythm ahead of their Premier League’s opening game away to Tottenham Hotspur. “[The game was] much better. Our games, not to say they’ve been bad in recent times, but we’re still finding our rhythm and the pitch at the weekend wasn’t the best, so it was hard to tell the movement and the passing tempos, but [on Wednesday] there were no excuses,” Armstrong continued. “Even trailing at half time, we showed some good signs, defensively looked solid, and I think we got better as the game went on, so it’s very promising moving on to next week now.”