Everton vs. Southampton: The Saints look for first season win against the Toffees
By Edward Waugh
Mark Hughes’ men will be looking to get off to winning ways, following last week’s stalemate at the hands of Burnley, visiting Goodison Park this Saturday in what looks to be a challenging fixture.
Southampton enter this game after a somewhat rocky performance at St. Mary’s in their Premier League opener, it was a game of two halves that showed the south coast club’s weakness operating a five-at-the-back system, to which Hughes eventually made the switch to a 4-4-2 in the second-half, to the delight of many fans as it then showed their attacking capabilities.
This has given many great optimism for the rest of this season – seeing a great attacking display against another top-tier outfit in Burnley has not been seen much by Southampton fans since the days of Ronald Koeman and Mauricio Pochettino, and therefore by visiting the blue side of Liverpool this weekend, it is thought that the red-and-white could steal a result of some sort.
It is not known how manager Mark Hughes will set up his side for this away fixture, despite having prepared for the season using the five-man defensive system, it could spell trouble if his players are not able to operate his effectively.
The opposition side in Everton, are in the situation as the Saints following the opening weekend of games – as they were held to a draw by Premier League newcomers Wolves in what was a tight-affair at the Molineux Stadium, new signing Richarlison notching two goals on his Toffees debut to the delight of their fans following his big money move from Watford this summer.
In fact, new Everton manager Marco Silva has quite literally splashed the cash this summer, bringing in the likes of Yerry Mina, Andre Gomes, Bernard and Lucas Digne alongside the mentioned Richarlison, and therefore the pressure to perform this season will be high on the Portuguese man’s shoulders.
Why Southampton Will Win
The south coast club have made strides to improve the playing quality of the squad this summer by loaning out and selling deadwood players, whilst replacing them with talent at a reasonable price – to which so far in pre-season and against Burnley, they were evermore impressive (Jannik Vestergaard and Danny Ings), and will look to build on these performances for the rest of the campaign.
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Danny Ings, who joined on loan from Liverpool on transfer deadline day has come with a point to prove due to his recent injury record that has seen him play limited game-time – also though being a local lad and fan of the club, will always be looking to make a mark in a red and white shirt, very much proving this against Burnley despite not playing the full 90.
Their opponents Everton could be missing as many as six key players this weekend, with all of their new signings par Lucas Digne not classed as doubtful for this game, this list including Richarlison who is Everton’s only scorer so far this campaign.
Why Everton Will Win
Mentioned above, Marco Silva will be expected to win this game, against Saints who finished just outside the relegation zones last campaign, and therefore failure to win would already start to spell trouble for the new man in charge – having spent so much over the transfer window.
Everton boast a very impressive home-record against Southampton, having not lost to the south-coast club since 1997 at Goodison Park, a mere 21-years-ago, 13 games have been played since and therefore this could be easily replicated this weekend if they perform to the level expected.
Despite having many players as a doubt for this game, The Blues can still field a rather strong side that contains the likes of former-Saints players Theo Walcott and Morgan Schneiderlin, Cenk Tosun and Gylfi Sigurdsson, and could therefore cause Southampton some problems.
Southampton’s new signings, Mohamed Elyounoussi and Stuart Armstrong both picked up injures this past week and therefore are unlikely to feature, shortening any threats posed to Everton.
Predicted Line-Ups
Southampton
Goalkeeper: Alex McCarthy
Defenders: Ryan Bertrand, Wesley Hoedt, Jannik Vestergaard, Jack Stephens, Cedric Soares
Midfielders: Oriol Romeu, Mario Lemina
Attackers, Nathan Redmond, Charlie Austin, Danny Ings
Everton
Goalkeeper: Jordan Pickford
Defenders: Lucas Digne, Michael Keane, Kurt Zouma, Seamus Coleman
Midfielders: Morgan Schneiderin, Idriss Gueye, Tom Davies, Theo Walcott, Gylfi Sigurdsson
Attackers: Cenk Tosun
Predicted Score
Everton 1-1 Southampton