Everton vs. Southampton: Saints look to complete great escape on blue Merseyside soil
By Edward Waugh
Following last weekend’s home win against Bournemouth, there has been a sense of optimism for Saints after their first win in the Premier League since November.
This ended an awful run and has now set up the opportunity for Mark Hughes’ men to battle it out with their fellow relegation-candidates for top flight status.
The Merseyside club Everton stand in the way in this weekend’s fixture, playing away from home at the infamous Goodison Park won’t be an easy feat – the Toffees sit eighth in the Premier League table, and have always proven difficult to beat when on home soil.
Though, with their backs against the wall, and now with a point to prove as well as Premier League status on the line, you would hope that Southampton will come out all guns blazing to ensure that they pick up some points, whether that’ll be from a win or even a draw.
In this scenario, anything but a loss will do for both clubs, Southampton looking to muster anything they can in a difficult position, whilst Everton look likely to finish in the top eight, with Burnley looking out of reach in 7th, whilst Leicester City and Newcastle sit too far off them to mount any form of a challenge.
Why Southampton Will Win
Mentioned above, Southampton’s top flight status is one the line here, and with a victory against Bournemouth last week, hope of them staying in England’s most prestigious league have now been reignited. Anything from a draw to a win will help put pressure on the sides above them and hopefully aid in the long run.
Southampton also have a few individuals that have experience in relegation fights and understand what they have to do to stay up, these would include the likes of Alex McCarthy, Maya Yoshida, Charlie Austin and Nathan Redmond to just name a few – most of them have had mixed results in avoiding the drop-zone, though sure they will not want to suffer the same pain again and therefore pull out all the stops to help Saints in their hours of need.
Mark Hughes also seems to be slowly getting the best out of players who have the potential to be the game-changers, examples would include Mario Lemina and Dusan Tadic, who last weekend were two of Southampton’s best performers, the latter being ‘Man of the Match’ with two vital goals to win the game – and therefore Saints fans will have fingers crossed that they carry this form into the game versus Everton.
Why Everton Will Win
There is currently a lot of pressure on Everton’s situation, their fans in particular have been rather unhappy on how this season has panned out – their playing style under current manager Sam Allardyce means that the manager and players are now under criticism to perform well, and therefore, this weekend, Everton could decide to go on the offensive to silence critics, to which they also have the quality to really hurt Southampton.
January signings Theo Walcott and Cenk Tosun have also been in great form since arrival, and could be those players that do most damage this weekend. What does help Everton’s situation is how vulnerable Southampton’s defence is, with inexperienced players Jan Bednarek and Wesley Hoedt making up a back five – their record signing Gylfi Sigurdsson also being their most dangerous player on his day.
To add, the Merseyside club’s home record against Southampton would also suggest that a win could be on the cards, the last time Everton lost to the south coast club in the Premier League at Goodison Park, was all the way back in 1997, a mere 21 years ago, scary right?
Line Ups & Result
Southampton
Goalkeeper – Alex McCarthy
Defenders – Jan Bednarek, Maya Yoshida, Wesley Hoedt
Midfielders – Cedric Soares, Oriol Romeu, Mario Lemina, Ryan Bertrand
Attackers, Dusan Tadic, Charlie Austin, Nathan Redmond
Everton
Goalkeeper – Jordan Pickford
Defenders – Seamus Coleman, Michael Keane, Phil Jagielka, Leighton Baines
Midfielders – Morgan Schneiderin, Idrissa Gueye, Wayne Rooney
Attackers – Theo Walcott, Cenk Tosun, Gylfi Sigurdsson
Result
Southampton 2-1 Everton