Southampton welcome Premier League leaders – Liverpool to St Mary’s Stadium in the opening Monday Night Football clash of 2021.
Victory will send Southampton sixth whilst Liverpool will stay top unless lose by 9+ goals and can restore their three point lead over Manchester United with a win.
Team News
Southampton have no fresh injury concerns to report after their goalless draw against West Ham, as Nathan Redmond (muscle) and Jannik Vestergaard (knee) remain absent.
Liverpool have no fresh injury concerns to report after their draw at Newcastle on Wednesday.
Naby Keita (muscle), Joel Matip (adductor), Diogo Jota, Konstantinos Tsimikas, Joe Gomez and Virgil Van Dijk (all knee) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- Southampton are winless in their last seven meetings against Liverpool (D1, L6).
- Liverpool are unbeaten in four of their last five trips to St Mary’s Stadium (W3, D1, L1).
- Mohamed Salah has scored three goals in two of his last three Liverpool appearances against Southampton.
- No Polish international has won more aerial battles in the Premier League this season than Southampton’s Jan Bednarek, with the defender winning 40 battles in 16 appearances.
- Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino has been substituted ten times this season in the league, double the five occasions in which Naby Keita was replaced during matches.
Prediction
Southampton seem to have hit a rut with no goals in their last three matches despite showing more creativity and solid defending than West Ham in their clash, but they do need to start finding goals if want to reignite their title challenge.
Liverpool also have hit a brick wall in the last week with two draws and under-par performances, with uncharacteristic backpasses constantly played when got forward against Newcastle coupled with several eventual wasted shots.
This therefore will certainly be an interesting encounter because both teams just seem to have hit a rough patch at a time when others are picking up form in the title race, although if one team is to end their dip now then I can’t see past Liverpool given their quality.
Prediction: Southampton 0-1 Liverpool
Result: Southampton 1-0 Liverpool
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