Southampton welcome second-placed West Ham United to St Mary’s as both teams look to bounce back from draws last time out.
Victory could see Southampton climb as high as 11th, whereas West Ham could go top with a win if Tottenham lose and Manchester United fail to better their result elsewhere.
Team News
Shane Long is ruled out for Southampton after testing positive for Coronavirus whilst on international duty for Republic of Ireland.
Stuart Armstrong (calf), Theo Walcott (knock), Sam McQueen and Will Smallbone (both knee) remain absent.
West Ham could have Kurt Zouma available after he missed their 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace a fortnight ago for personal reasons.
Winston Reid is still ruled out with a knee injury.
Stat Attack
- Southampton are winless in their last seven league meetings against West Ham (D1, L6).
- West Ham have lost just one of their last five trips to St Mary’s Stadium (W3, D1, L1).
- David Moyes’ Hammers have kept clean sheets in their last two away visits to Southampton (W1, D1).
- Southampton have scored first in three of their four matches in all competitions so far this season.
- All four of Michail Antonio’s league goals this season for West Ham have come in the second half after the 60th minute mark.
Prediction
Having had to weather a tough away trip to Newcastle with patience and spirit in order to twice fight back to snatch a point, Southampton can come into this match with confidence but they did struggle with the Magpies’ counter-attacking style at times which will be a slight worry for Ralph Hasenhuttl.
West Ham meanwhile will be eager to get back to their best after finding themselves frustrated by Palace last time out despite their attacking creativity, although defensive mistakes still seem to be ever-present which cost them a win particularly through poor movement in defence when Palace attacked.
On that note, this could be an interesting contest between two different yet solid teams where defending could well be key, although I do fancy West Ham to hit back here if are clinical enough and can sort out their defensive sloppiness.
Prediction: Southampton 1-2 West Ham
Result: Southampton 0-0 West Ham