Southampton vs West Bromwich Albion
Date: 14/10/17
K.O: 15:00pm
TV: BT Sport 1
Southampton will take on West Bromwich Albion on Saturday in the tea time game at St Marys in a fixture which both sides will be desperate to win to alleviate their recent shaky form.
Southampton are winless in three while West Brom are yet to pick up all three points since game week two and have squandered leads late on in both of their most recent outings. Had it not been for their early season form neither side would be sat comfortably in mid table going into this weekend.
Dusan Tadic, who has not been quite at the races of late, has been talking the game up this week saying that they are keen to win on Saturday for the fans, and with his history of direct involvement in goals against the visitors (2 assists and a goal) he could make good on his word.
Gabbiadini will be looking to add to his brace against Newcastle and will surely have been the subject of a couple of training sessions in the Black Country this week
Pellegrino is set to boast a fully fit squad, something his capped counterpart Tony Pulis could only dream of; injuries to Ben Foster and Boaz Myhill will be giving the boss serious concerns going into the weekend fixtures, and with youngster Alex Palmer the only alternative option between the posts the Baggies could be in the rare position of making an emergency loan.
The Baggies will be keen to take at least a point home with them to keep the board ticking over towards the fabled forty-point mark, but Southampton should see this game as a real opportunity to mark up a victory in a game where any attacking initiative is going to be dictated by their midfielders.
Embed from Getty ImagesWest Brom are likely to swamp the midfield in an attempt to grind out a result, however, as Leicester proved on Monday, this can be bypassed with some smart wing play which should make entertaining viewing for the neutral. Equally, West Brom looked good on the counter in their last outing so this could be a surprisingly end to end game.
Expected starting XI’s:
Southampton (4-2-3-1): Forster, Cedric, Yoshida, Van Dijk, Bertrand, Lemina, Romeu, Tadic, Gabbiadini, Redmond, Long
West Bromwich Albion (4-1-4-1): Foster, Dawson, Hegazi, Evans, Gibbs, Livermore, Phillips, Krychowiak, Barry, Chadli, Rodriguez
Prediction: Southampton 2 West Bromwich Albion 1
Written by George Bates.
