Southampton host Brighton & Hove Albion at St Mary’s Stadium in a crunch Boxing Day clash.
Victory would see Southampton climb out of the relegation zone due to Nottingham Forest and West Ham both playing on Tuesday and Monday evenings respectively.
Brighton meanwhile can go sixth with a win because Liverpool aren’t in action until teatime on Boxing Day.
Team News
Theo Walcott is ruled out for Southampton with a calf injury suffered during the first minute of their comeback win over Lincoln City in the Carabao Cup.
Romeo Lavia (knock) could return but Valentino Livramento (knee) and Juan Larios (adductor) both remain absent.
Brighton will again be without Adam Webster and Danny Welbeck, after the pair missed their Carabao Cup exit at Charlton with knocks respectively.
Alexis Mac Allister (personal) and Jakub Moder (knee) remain absent, whilst Robert Sanchez and Jeremy Sarmiento could return after the pair weren’t risked at Charlton following their return from the World Cup.
Stat Attack
- Southampton have lost just one of 10 previous Premier League meetings against Brighton (W3, D6, L1).
- Brighton have won just one of five previous Premier League visits to Southampton (W1, D4).
- Both teams have scored in all five Premier League meetings played at St Mary’s Stadium.
- Southampton have scored in seven of eight home games in all competitions this season, only failing to do so in a 1-0 defeat to Manchester United in August.
- Brighton have scored the opening goal in each of their last three league matches (W2, L1).
Prediction
Having had one match and a full international break to connect with his new squad, Nathan Jones will be relieved that his Saints avoided a cupset against Lincoln last week but he did rightly post-match make the point of needing more clinical quality.
This clash therefore is a chance for Southampton to correct that given that the final touch has often been their biggest issue this season, whilst their defensive ability also hasn’t been the best as Liverpool exposed in the Saints’ last league game last month so this will be a tough task for the hosts.
Brighton meanwhile are starting to get cut adrift of the battle for European qualification and were fairly toothless in their embarrassing Carabao Cup exit last week, despite their overall dominance so I do hope that they can quickly reset and rediscover their impressive spark of this season.
St Mary’s though has been a hoodoo ground for Brighton in recent seasons but with various regulars like Sanchez, Pervis Estupinian and Kaoru Mitoma set to start, I do expect improvement but the Saints seem to like scoring at home so this could be a close battle.
Prediction: Southampton 1-1 Brighton
Result: Southampton 1-3 Brighton
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