Southampton welcome Leicester to St Mary’s Stadium in Friday Night Football, as Brendan Rogers’ Foxes look to move closer towards Champions League qualification.
Victory would see Southampton climb above Burnley and Crystal Palace into 13th for at least 16 hours, whereas Leicester will consolidate third for a 13th consecutive week with a win.
Team News
Danny Ings is ruled out for Southampton with a hamstring injury suffered in their last outing, as they lost 2-1 away at Tottenham Hotspur.
Ryan Bertrand (calf), Michael Obafemi (muscle), Will Smallbone (knee) and Oriol Romeu (ankle) are ruled out.
Leicester will be without Wes Morgan following a recurrence of a back injury which looks set to rule him out for the rest of this season.
Harvey Barnes and James Justin are both still sidelined with knee injuries for the remainder of this campaign.
Stat Attack
- Southampton have claimed just seven points from their last seven league meetings against Leicester (W2, D1, L4).
- Leicester are unbeaten in four of their last five trips to St Mary’s Stadium (W3, D1, L1).
- Two of Southampton’s last six home goals have been scored by Danny Ings.
- Four of Leicester’s last five away goals have been scoring by Kelechi Iheanacho.
- Robert Jones’ is refereeing a match at St Mary’s Stadium for the first time.
Prediction
Having blown a first half lead at Tottenham just over a week ago, Southampton will be disappointed to come into this game off the back of a defeat in which they played well in despite defensive lapses in marking costing them at least a draw.
Leicester meanwhile made a sluggish start on Monday evening against Crystal Palace before recovering with an improved second half display, which should be the ideal launchpad given their away form in this fixture.
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Saints however are without two key players in Ings and Bertrand which is a worry as to where their goals could come from, especially given Iheanacho’s form for Leicester so I am backing them for a routine away win here.
Prediction: Southampton 0-2 Leicester
Result: Southampton 1-1 Leicester
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