After enjoying their first consecutive wins of the season in the past week, Southampton will be looking to make it a treble in a week as they welcome Manchester United to St Marys’ Stadium.
An away win would send the Red Devils third for at least a few hours whilst the Saints could climb out of the relegation zone if they can take all three points.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesSouthampton will be without Nathan Redmond after the winger picked up an ankle injury during Tuesday’s Carabao Cup win at Fulham.
Moussa Djenepo is also ruled out with a muscle injury but Ryan Bertrand (ankle) and Michael Obafemi (cramp) are both expected to be available.
Anthony Martial is ruled out for Manchester United with a knock picked up during last weekend’s home defeat to Crystal Palace.
Luke Shaw (hamstring), Diogo Dalot (unspecified injury), Eric Bailly and Timothy Fosu-Mensah (both knee) are also sidelined for this trip.
Form
Having lost their opening two league games, Southampton recorded their first win and clean sheet last Saturday against Brighton before seeing off Fulham in midweek Carabao Cup action.
Manchester United saw their two match unbeaten start ended by Crystal Palace last weekend as Patrick van Anholt struck to hand the Eagles an injury time winner.
Stat Attack
- Southampton have won just one of their last seven league meetings with Manchester United (W1, D3, L3).
- At home, Southampton have drawn two of their last five clashes with Man Utd (D2, L3).
- United’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka has made the second most tackles so far this season, managing 16 tackles in his opening three matches.
- Southampton’s Jan Bednarek is just one of three players to have produced 19 clearances, the third highest amount in the opening three weekends behind Norwich’s Ben Godfrey (21) and Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings (32).
- Both teams have had ten shots on target in their opening three games.
Prediction
Southampton have enjoyed a positive week but United are tougher opposition and will be hurting after last weekend’s poor performance against Palace.
I therefore am expecting a lively game between two good teams but United should have enough to scrape together the win.
Prediction: Southampton 1-2 Manchester United
Result: Southampton 1-1 Manchester United