Just days after triumphing at Molineux in the FA Cup, Southampton welcome Wolves to St Mary’s Stadium in the first of a quadruple Super Sunday header.
Victory will move Southampton above Arsenal into 11th for at least four hours, whilst Wolves will leapfrog the Saints into 12th with a win.
Team News
Southampton have no fresh injury concerns to report after Thursday’s FA Cup win at Molineux.
Alexandre Jankewitz (suspension), Ibrahima Diallo (muscle), Theo Walcott (hamstring), Michael Obafemi (undisclosed) and Will Smallbone (knee) remain absent.
Wolves remain without Daniel Podence (adductor), Willy Boly (hamstring), Fernando Marcal (both groin) and Raul Jimenez (head) who are still on the sidelines.
Stat Attack
- Southampton have won just one of their last five league meetings against Wolves (W1, D2, L2).
- Wolves have won just one of three previous Premier League trips to Southampton (W1, L2).
- Shane Long has scored once in his last two Southampton home games against Wolves, although he is now out on loan at Bournemouth.
- Wolves’ Conor Coady is the only Premier League player to have made two last-man tackles so far this season.
- Four of James Ward-Prowse’s five league goals this season have come from free-kicks.
Prediction
Having conceded 12 goals in their last two league games, Southampton produced a strong clinical display to weather Wolves’ attacks and get a huge morale-boosting win in the FA Cup on Thursday evening.
This league game though could well see both teams make more changes but Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Saints ideally need to play with a more balanced defence that we saw on Thursday, because they were either too exposed or compact in their last two league games which cost them heavily.
Wolves meanwhile are playing well in every area but up front where they have been toothless, with Fabio Silva particularly lacking confidence given that he has wasted two huge opportunities in front of goal in their last two matches.
Deja vu however is my gut instinct because both teams will have sussed each other out tactically on Thursday evening given the strength of their starting line-ups, so a draw would be a decent bet but I fancy Southampton to find another win.
Prediction: Southampton 1-0 Wolves
Result: Southampton 1-2 Wolves
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