Relegation battling Southampton face a difficult Premier League home test against Chelsea.
Russell Martin’s Saints will stay bottom regardless of the result, whilst Chelsea can go second with a win if Arsenal fail to better their result.
Team News
Tyler Dibling, Flynn Downes and Taylor Harwood-Bellis are suspended for Southampton after the trio picked up their fifth bookings in a 1-1 draw at Brighton.
Ross Stewart (Achilles), Paul Onuachu (unspecified) and Will Smallbone (thigh) could return.
Aaron Ramsdale (finger), Jan Bednarek (knee), Adam Lallana (hamstring) and Gavin Bazunu (Achilles) remain ruled out.
Chelsea will be without Wesley Fofana after he suffered a hamstring injury in their 3-0 home win over Aston Villa.
Reece James and Omari Kellyman (both hamstring) are still out ruled out,
When is Kick-Off?
Southampton host Chelsea at St Mary’s Stadium on Wednesday 4 December at 7:30pm GMT, live on Amazon Prime in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Southampton have lost two of their last seven league meetings against Chelsea (W3, D2, L2).
- Chelsea have lost one of their last eight league visits to Southampton (W6, D1, L1).
- Victory would see Southampton record three consecutive league wins over Chelsea for the first time in their history.
- Adam Armstrong has scored in each of Southampton’s last two home games (W1, L1).
- Nicolas Jackson has netted four goals in three of Chelsea’s last four away games in the top flight.
Prediction
Since last month’s international break, Southampton have looked more confident in attack and defensively organised but their high-line defence is quite risky against attack-minded teams so I hope they play slightly safer here.
Chelsea though will surely rotate given their busy schedule but having clinically dispatched Villa despite quite a bit of patient defensive play, I can see them dominating here and relentlessly pressuring the Saints’ leaky defence.
As nice as it would be for Southampton to get something here, I really think that Chelsea will win this rather comfortably.
Prediction: Southampton 0-2 Chelsea
Result: Southampton 1-5 Chelsea
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