Southampton welcome Manchester United to St Mary’s Stadium in a midtable Premier League clash.
Victory could see Southampton climb to sixth in the table for at least a few hours, whilst Utd themselves can also improve to sixth ahead of Saturday’s mid-afternoon kick-offs.
Team News
Romain Perraud could return for Southampton after a muscle injury kept him out of their last three matches.
Kyle Walker-Peters, James Ward-Prowse and Adam Armstrong feature amongst several players looking for a recall, having been rested in the Saints’ 3-0 midweek Carabao Cup win at Cambridge United.
Valentino Livramento remains absent with a serious knee injury.
Man Utd manager, Erik Ten Hag could hand Casemiro his first start after the Brazilian joined from Real Madrid this week.
Facundo Pellistri (ankle), Victor Lindelof (knock), Brandon Williams (unspecified) and Mason Greenwood (personal) are ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Southampton are unbeaten in four of their last six meetings against Man Utd (D4, L2).
- Man Utd are unbeaten in their last 11 league visits to St Mary’s Stadium (W6, D5).
- Three of the last four draws in this fixture finished 1-1 except for a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford in July 2020.
- James Ward-Prowse is the first Southampton player to provide a goal and assist in the Premier League this season.
- Two of Utd’s three league goals this season have been scored by English players – Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho.
Prediction
Having endured a scruffy start to the season, Southampton finally seemed to find their feet with a solid comeback at Leicester last weekend where they were excellent in their defensive press and marking, yet showed great clinical response to fight back from a goal down with stronger intensity.
That progress continued in their midweek win at Cambridge with Che Adams in particular looking tricky to handle, which should provide the Saints with extra confidence going forward especially on top of refreshed players who missed the midweek game.
Man Utd meanwhile delivered the perfect response to their defeat at Brentford a fortnight ago with an aggressive attacking style and intensity to beat Liverpool, whilst their defence finally found some basic passion but this will be a test of if that performance is a fluke or breakthrough.
If Utd show that last week’s performance was the latter then it will be hard to see them not getting something here, yet if it’s more of a fluke and Southampton bring a strong intensity then this could be an interesting game.
I though do feel like we will see something in the middle because both teams aren’t defensively solid but the Saints have been tough opposition for Utd in recent meetings, plus are starting to find their form whereas it is hard to know what to expect of Man Utd here.
Prediction: Southampton 1-1 Manchester United
Result: Southampton 0-1 Manchester United
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