Beattie's new high sends a warning to Highbury

Southampton 3 Leeds United

Arsenal beware. That was the message loud and clear from the St Mary's stadium on an afternoon when Southampton, FA Cup finalists next month, toyed with, and destroyed, a poor Leeds side.

The scoreline is deceptive, for Southampton should have had at least four or five goals before they relaxed and let Peter Reid's men back, on paper at least. Leeds' second goal came with the final whistle already in Mark Halsey's mouth.

It is four weeks until Arsenal take on the Saints in the Cup final at Cardiff and if they play like they did here then they have every chance of repeating their shock feat of beating Manchester United in the 1976 Cup final.

James Beattie, who scored the 22nd League goal of his best-ever season, dragged and bullied the Leeds back line all around the penalty box, and was ably assisted by his strike partner, Brett Ormerod, who also got his name on the scoresheet.

That was just one area where Saints excelled and a very frank Reid admitted: "The scoreline flattered us – we were second best all over the pitch. We've got to go out with desire and work hard but we were second best there as well."

Leeds will already be one week into their holidays when the Cup final takes place, but for the majority of this match their minds already appeared set on the beach. However, the Saints still have something to play for and it showed.

They took the lead with just over half an hour gone. Southampton had already forced three good saves from Paul Robinson, when Anders Svensson dribbled into the penalty area. Robinson parried his shot but Ormerod was on hand to tap in.

Then on the brink of half-time Southampton doubled their lead when the Frenchman Fernandes crossed deep to Ormerod who found Beattie. Although he scuffed his shot from the knock-down, it still found the corner.

A contender for goal of the month then effectively wrapped up the points for Southampton and at the same time must have had Leeds fans shivering at reminders of the darkest days of this campaign when, under Terry Venables, various teams ripped them apart.

After 53 minutes Fernandes found Beattie on the half-way line. The striker brilliantly clipped the ball around the hapless Danny Mills and went charging on before finding the onrushing Svensson, who beat Robinson from 10 yards.

It was that which prompted Saints manager Gordon Strachan to say: "It could have been any score. We didn't have a failure on the pitch today." For Leeds it never rains but it pours. Alan Smith was sent off after an hour for two yellow cards, which followed on from his dismissal for England at this ground last October against Macedonia. It was the ninth of his career but also marked Halsey's second of the week, after he sent off Arsenal's Sol Campbell on Wednesday.

Harry Kewell, with 10 minutes left, and Nick Barmby in the final seconds, put some gloss on the score but no one, least of all Reid, was going to be fooled by that.

Southampton 3
Ormerod 31, Beattie 45, A Svensson 53

Leeds United 2
Kewell 80, Barmby 90

Half-time: 2-0 Attendance: 32,032