Southampton welcome West Ham to St Mary’s Stadium in a huge mid-table Premier League clash.
Victory could send Southampton fourth for at least a few hours, whilst West Ham will remain tenth with a win but can move level with the Saints on points if they claim an away win.
Team News
Oriol Romeu is available for Southampton after serving his one match ban in their Boxing Day draw at Fulham.
Jannik Vestergaard (knee) remains absent alongside Danny Ings and Nathan Redmond who are both sidelined with muscle injuries.
West Ham could welcome Michail Antonio back from a hamstring injury as he continues to near a return, although he won’t be risked until deemed fully match fit.
Arthur Masuaku remains absent with a knee injury.
Stat Attack
- Southampton have won just one of their last seven meetings against West Ham (W1, L6).
- West Ham have lost just two of their last eight trips to St Mary’s Stadium (W3, D3, L2).
- Sebastien Haller scored once in both meetings for West Ham last season (W2).
- Only Southampton have scored more than once from a free-kick this season, scoring from three such set pieces with those three goals all coming from James Ward-Prowse.
- None of Haller’s three goals in 14 league appearances this season has come on his left foot compared to two in 32 appearances last season.
Prediction
Southampton will certainly feel hard done by to have seen two goals ruled out by VAR at Fulham on Saturday but need to be more focused defensively, particularly given how disappointing they were in the first half before playing as the better team after half-time.
West Ham meanwhile looked like a team who were just starting the season with a lacklustre performance on Sunday in the first half, although they showed admirable spirit to twice fight back to draw against Brighton despite poor man-marking as were impressive in terms of attack.
Southampton though played 24 hours earlier and if they can get on the front foot quickly and force West Ham into another slow awakening performance, they could well get one or two early goals to settle this otherwise I can see a draw here.
Prediction: Southampton 1-1 West Ham
Result: Southampton 0-0 West Ham