England Premier League
Tuesday 28th December 2021
Kick off at 3pm GMT
Venue: St Mary's Stadium
Match Preview:
The Saints ended their poor form with victory over West Ham at the weekend in a game that ebbed and flowed and was a real end to end clash. In the end Southampton won 3-2 and it seemed that every time the Hammers got themselves back in the game the Saints would find a way to re take the lead.
This is a fighting spirit that Ralf Hasenhuttl’s team have evidently been missing over the past month and it would have been welcomed. Indeed the victory was a great one for the club considering that it was away from home and at the London Stadium that Liverpool and Chelsea have both come away with defeats from. The Saints will be the underdogs to win this duel but will certainly have a boost of confidence coming into the game.
The victory at the weekend means that Southampton are in 14th place but such is the closeness a win here and some other results going their way could see the club move up 3-4 places.
Tottenham have been impressive under Antonio Conte and remain unbeaten in the league under the Italian. Cynics will say they have had a good run of fixtures and when they did play a strong team in Liverpool they drew 2-2. But the whole nature of the club seems to have been affected by Conte’s hard work behind the scenes and one of the pleasures of that is even Harry Kane is scoring goals again. Kane has endured a poor season so far with an uncanny ability to score goals but he now has 2 goals in two games and looks confident again, this will be music to Conte’s ears.
At the weekend Tottenham made light work of Crystal Palace and won the game 3-0 and have moved to up 5th place with 29 points. They are six points behind Arsenal for the coveted 4th place, but here is the good news; Tottenham have 3 games in hand over the Gunners. Manchester United remain the big threat to Conte’s plans, so the plan has to be simple- his club need to keep winning.
Tottenham have earned 13 points from their past 15 on offer but away from home a different picture presents itself. The club has just two wins and have lost 50% of their games with just 5 goals scored so far. Spurs would be in 13th place based on away results only. The clubs last away game ended 0-0 against Everton and they didn’t even register a shot on target. However it has been a strange time for football with Covid interrupting play and Tottenham haven’t played on the road for over a month, and of course in that time their form has greatly improved, so we would expect them to improve their away form also.
Team News:
Southampton: Lyanco, Jack Stephens and Nathan Tella are all out due to Covid-19 illnesses. Alex McCarthy is out for at least another 3 weeks due to his hamstring.
Tottenham: Ryan Sessegnon is out with his hamstring and is not due back until next weekend at the earliest.
Southampton vs Tottenham Head to Head:
Last season in this fixture Tottenham put 5 past Southampton as they won the game 5-2.
The last 4 meetings has seen both teams to score and Tottenham have won the last 3 meetings in a row.
Tottenham have put 10 goals past Southampton in the last three games.
There is a 70% chance to see over 2.5 goals.
Southampton vs Tottenham Prediction:
Tottenham are a great price to win this game and it feels too tempting not to go with them. One of the reasons the price is generous is because the Saints are a team who can never be taken lightly at home. They are a club who up their game against the better sides and try to frustrate their opponents and one can also wonder how long Tottenham’s good run under Conte will last? We also have to understand that Tottenham’s away record is less than impressive, though Conte has not really been given a chance to sort that out.
Not only has Harry Kane found his scoring boots but so has Heung Min-Son and both players have clearly picked up their game in recent weeks. This is a good period for Tottenham and we should follow them for now.
Southampton vs Tottenham Betting Tips:
Tottenham to beat Southampton at 2.00
Anytime goalscorer: Harry Kane at 2.05
Team to score the first goal: Tottenham at 1.72
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