Premier League Preview: Southampton vs Tottenham
Venue: St Mary’s Kick-off: Sunday, 21 January, 16:00
When did things get quite so bad at Southampton? Mauricio Pellegrino’s men’s gradual decline this season suddenly puts them firmly in the mire as they welcome Tottenham to St Mary’s.
The two sides only played the corresponding fixture at Wembley less than a month ago, when the Lilywhites handed out a 5-2 Boxing Day thrashing.
At the start of the weekend, the Saints find themselves 17th, knowing that if results don’t go their way, they could be in the relegation zone by the time they kick off.
Whereas they will be without top scorer Charlie Austin, who has another month left on the sidelines in the midst of his latest injury setback, Spurs have no such problems. Their lethal attacking trio of Harry Kane, Heung-Min Son, and Christian Eriksen all got on the scoresheet in the 4-0 victory over Everton.
That was their fourth clean sheet in six games in all competitions, a run which has put them within three points of the Champions League spots. Crucially, after this, Tottenham’s next three league opponents are Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal, so they cannot afford to head home from the South Coast with anything other than maximum points.
Mauricio Pochettino never gets a very warm reception at his former stomping ground and it’s fair to say few of his former friends and colleagues will be looking forward to seeing him on this occasion. Pellegrino may be similar to his compatriot in name, but in all other respects, they couldn’t be enjoying more different fortunes.
The latter is under enormous pressure, having failed to win a league game since beating David Unsworth’s Everton on November 26.
Team news
Toby Alderweireld will return to training next week but is still some weeks off a return. Likewise, Danny Rose isn’t expected to feature for another fortnight, along with Harry Winks (ankle).
Aside from Austin, Maya Yoshida will not be available as he has a hamstring problem.
Expected line-ups
Southampton: McCarthy, Cedric, Stephens, Hoedt, Bertrand, Romeu, Hojbjerg, Ward-Prowse, Tadic, Davis, Long
Tottenham: Lloris, Aurier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Davies, Dier, Dembele, Eriksen, Alli, Son, Kane
Did you know? Spurs haven’t lost at this ground since March 2005, when Nigel Quashie scored the winning goal. In fact, since then, Southampton have only beaten them once anywhere, winning 2-1 in the last game at a full-capacity White Hart Lane in 2016. It proved to be one of Victor Wanyama’s final games for the Saints before he moved to north London.
Prediction: The obvious narrative of Southampton’s woes is that they first had to deal with an unsettled Virgil van Dijk, and then lost him to Liverpool altogether. In reality, the problems run deeper than that. If the table was decided on goals scored, they would be just below mid-table, but Spurs should be able to inflict more damage on their defence. The Lilywhites have won four of the two teams’ last five meetings. Southampton 0-3 Tottenham
