European curse?
Burnley played away in Turkey as recently as Thursday night, and were limited to just under a third of the ball meaning they would’ve been worked to the last minute by Istanbul Basaksehir – a team who’s squad includes Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Adebayor and Arda Turan.
Famously, teams who aren’t used to European football season in, season out struggle with the commitment of Thursday night games, and often fail to produce the goods in the following Premier League game.
As a result we could see a poor performance from Sean Dyche’s side this afternoon, although the flip side of course is that they could be sharper having played three competitive games already whereas the Saints have only played half a dozen friendlies.
Nonetheless, Southampton will need to show the level of energy and intensity we know the current squad can produce, and hopefully can pounce on some errors from some tired players as the game goes on.