Southampton vs. Leicester City: Saints look to ‘outfox’ Leicester for three points

The Saints host the former Premier League champions to St. Mary’s this Saturday, looking to pick up their first three points of the season after failing to do so against Burnley and Everton.

Mark Hughes will be looking to take the pressure off himself, failure to win this weekend would start to spell trouble for the club amongst the fans given the slow start to the season – to which many could fear that this will be become a more increasingly difficult campaign for those in red and white.

This is not to say that the recent performances have been bad, in their two opening fixtures Southampton have shown themselves to have real attacking prowess at times – especially against Burnley in the second-half with the addition of Danny Ings and Mohamed Elyounoussi to the pitch, the former also scoring against Everton.

Their opposition this weekend in Leicester City are in a slightly stronger position than the south-coast club in that they have won one of their two opening fixtures, beating Wolves last weekend in a ill-tempered 2-0 win that saw striker Jamie Vardy sent off, whilst before that losing at Old Trafford 2-1 to Manchester United.

With this, former-Saints manager Claude Puel makes his second return to St. Mary’s following his dismissal last June, his first return resulting in a 4-1 victory to The Foxes that all but added to Mauricio Pellegrino being ditched by the club in an attempt to save their season – likewise this time, the French manager has been given limited time to save his job this campaign.

Both teams will be desperately looking to prove their worth in this game, despite it being early in the season, the pressure of expectation in the Premier League has become immense of late and a string of bad results can result in drastic change, whether that be management or players on the pitch.

Why Southampton Will Win

As mentioned, the Saints are yet to win a game so far this season and therefore will be desperate or be trying anything in their power to try win against Leicester this weekend – and therefore prove to their fans that they are capable of beating challenging teams.

New loan-signing Danny Ings has been inspiring so far, scoring one goal in one start as well as looking extremely sharp in a sub-appearance on the opening weekend of fixtures, not to mention his links with the club and local area as a fan, always means that the Winchester-born player will want to keep making a mark.

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• Rain clouds on the horizon? Southampton beat Plymouth Argyle
• A lament for Southampton legend James Ward-Prowse

Southampton have a full strength side to boast with the return of Jannik Vestergaard and potentially Mohamed Elyonuoussi, who both missed last weekend’s game against Everton, both new singings just like Ings, who have already shown what they can add quality to the team in such a small space of time – with this Leicester are also missing strikers Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki through suspension and injury.

Why Leicester Will Win

Just like Southampton, the Foxes need to pick up the points in this results driven game, as failure to do so will only mount pressure on the club and more in particular manager Claude Puel.

As mentioned earlier, Saints were handed a 4-1 loss last December in this fixture, and with their French manager knowing his former club’s squad inside-out, it means that Leicester might know how to play against certain players within the squad such as Nathan Redmond, James Ward-Prowse and Manolo Gabbiadini to just name a few.

Despite missing two big players in Vardy and Okazaki, the midlands club can still boast a strong starting lineup that includes the likes of Harry Maquire, Kasper Schmeichel, Demarai Gray and Kelechi Iheanacho, all of which can be real game changers on their day.

Predicted Line Ups

Southampton

Goalkeeper: Alex McCarthy

Defenders: Ryan Bertrand, Wesley Hoedt, Jannik Vestergaard, Cedric Soares

Midfielders: Nathan Redmond, Oriol Romeu, Mario Lemina, James Ward-Prowse

Strikers: Charlie Austin, Danny Ings

Leicester City

Goalkeeper: Kasper Schmichel

Defenders: Ben Chilwell, Harry Maguire, Jonny Evans, Ricardo Pereira

Midfielders: Wilfred Ndidi, Nampalys Mendy, Marc Albrighton, James Maddison, Demarai Gray

Strikers: Kelechi Iheanacho

Predicted Score

Southampton 2-1 Leicester City