Another goal drought in Southampton?
Southampton, who are still lacking in form, await Leicester, who ended their crisis last weekend with a 4-2 win over Watford. The match-winner was once again Jamie Vardy with two goals.
The hosts, on the other hand, were thrashed 4-0 by the Reds at Anfield Road and conceded their second defeat in a row in league play. For the clash at St Mary’s Stadium between Southampton and Leicester, the tip includes a maximum of two goals by the final whistle.
Southampton – Statistics & current form
The Saints had a temporary hope of improvement thanks to a run of four unbeaten games between matchday eight and eleven, but they then handed Norwich only their second win of the season and, as mentioned above, suffered a defeat at Liverpool last Saturday.
One of the shortcomings of coach Ralph Hasenhüttl’s team is the harmless attack. Without the exiled goal-scorer Danny Ings, things are no longer going well in attack: only the promoted Canaries have scored less often. Less than one goal has been scored on average by the south coast side in the 13 league games they have played.
No more than one goal for the home side?
With this in mind, the odds on Southampton and Leicester scoring a maximum of one goal are worth considering. However, the home side can take heart from their home strength. They have only lost one of six home games and have won a third.
The fact that Southampton do not look even worse in the table is due to the solid defence of the 15th-placed team in the table. Brentford alone have conceded fewer goals than the Saints among the teams in the bottom half of the table.
Saints like to mix concrete at home
Defensive strength is also particularly evident in home games: The hosts have conceded an average of 0.66 goals in matches at home to St. Mary’s Stadium and have kept a clean sheet in half of those encounters.
Predicted line-up of Southampton:
McCarthy – Bednarek – Lyanco – Salisu – Perraud – Romeu – Livramento – Ward-Prowse – Adams – Armstrong – Broja
Last matches played by Southampton:
Premier League
11/27 2021 – Liverpool FC 4 – 0 Southampton
11/20 2021 – Norwich 2 – 1 Southampton
11/05 2021 -Southampton 1 – 0 Aston Villa
10/30 2021 – Watford 0 – 1 Southampton
Carabao Cup
10/26 2021 – Chelsea London (4)1 – 1(3) Southampton
Leicester – Statistics & current form
The Foxes bounced back from a painful 3-0 home defeat to league leaders Chelsea on the penultimate matchday. They followed that up with a 3-1 win over Legia Warsaw on home soil in the Europa League and a 4-2 win over Watford in their last home game.
The 2016 champions are now also banking on their away strength in this fixture, with three of their last four visits to Southampton victorious (3-1-0). On those occasions, Leicester have also scored no fewer than 16 goals, with the 9-0 rout in October 2019 being particularly spectacular, of course.
Goals on both sides are the norm away from home for the Foxes
A further constant in LCFC’s away games in the recent past has been the goal celebrations on both sides. For 13 of Leicester’s visiting games, this fixture has always been in evidence! Only Blackburn had a longer run of this kind in Premier League history between May 2011 and February 2012, when they played 14 games.
For home coach Hasenhüttl, Leicester are not a welcome opponent. In the five league games under the Austrian’s direction, the visiting teams have scored a whopping 14 goals – an average of 2.8 goals conceded. Only against Manchester United does Hasenhüttl have a worse average rate (3.2) of goals conceded.
Perez meets his favourite opponent
Furthermore, Ayoze Perez is looking forward to this pairing. The striker already landed two hat-tricks against Southampton. With seven goals, he has even scored the most against this opponent compared to all other clubs in the British top flight.
Coach Brendan Rodgers has only used the attacker from the bench or not at all, but in view of Perez’s statistics, this is likely to change in the upcoming match. Basically, a balanced duel between Southampton and Leicester can be expected, which is why the odds on a draw are also of interest.
Predicted Leicester line-up:
Schmeichel – Castagne – Evans – Söyüncü – Thomas – Soumare – Ndidi – Lookman – Maddison – Barnes – Vardy
Last matches played by Leicester:
Premier League
11/28 2021 – Leicester 4 – 2 Watford
Europa League Grp. C
11/25 2021 – Leicester 3 – 1 Legia Warsaw
Premier League
11/20 2021 – Leicester 0 – 3 Chelsea London
11/07 2021 – Leeds 1 – 1 Leicester
Europa League Grp. C
11/04 2021 – Leicester 1 – 1 Spartak Moscow
Southampton – Leicester Direct Comparison / H2H Record
Last season, Southampton drew 1-1 with the Foxes in front of their own crowd, with Rodgers’ side again winning the other two Premier League and FA Cup semi-final encounters. For the upcoming edition of Southampton vs Leicester, the odds are very evenly balanced.
Southampton – Leicester Tip
The Saints are stuck in the table and remain in the lower midfield after two defeats. The visitors, for their part, arrive with two recent wins in league action and the Europa League. For the clash between Southampton and Leicester, the tip is for a maximum of two goals by the final whistle.
Even though the home side is having a bumpy ride, they have only lost one of six home games and their defence has been solid in these encounters – as can be seen from their three clean sheets. At the same time, the offense has a lot of room for improvement (less than one goal per home game), so the games at St. Mary’s Stadium have been low-scoring so far.
Only 1.5 goals have been scored per home game by Hasenhüttl’s team – the lowest figure in the British top flight! The selected limit of goals was only exceeded once in the 2:2 against Burnley in the penultimate home game.
The prediction is backed up by the three duels in the Premier League and FA Cup last season, all of which ended with a maximum of two goals. Bet365 offers betting odds of 2.10 on the match between Southampton and Leicester
