Watford vs Southampton: Team news as KWP, Smallbone, Romeu start

Southampton kick-off against Watford in just under an hour and will be looking to get back on track after a disappointing defeat to Arsenal on Thursday.

Mistakes cost Saints at St Mary’s as Alex McCarthy allowed his pass out to be charged down easily by Gunners striker Eddie Nketiah, and then sloppy play at the back gave the visitors a late free-kick that they eventually scored from at the third attempt.

Watford will also be looking to build up some momentum towards the end of the season and will want this to start after facing Saints this afternoon.

Nigel Pearson’s side really picked up in his early days at the club and got themselves out of deeep trouble at the bottom of the table. However, just one victory in their last seven games sees them just one point outside the relegation zone ahead of kick-off.

Both Pearson and Ralph Hasenhuttl revealed intriguing team news in their pre-match press conferences this week.

Saints will be without Jack Stephens after his late sending off against Arsenal and he will join Moussa Djenepo in being suspended for the Watford fixture.

This has provided an opportunity for Jannik Vestergaard, who will pair Jan Bednarek at the centre of the Saints backline.

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Hasenhuttl has kept faith with Alex McCarthy in goal, but Kyle Walker-Peters, Vestergaard, Oriol Romeu and Will Smallbone have all come in to start.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Sofiane Boufal faced late assessments ahead of selection, and it appears that both been ruled out of this one. Stuart Armstrong surprisingly drops to the bench.

Watford looked set to have the same group of players available to them that they had for their narrow 1-0 loss to Burnley on Thursday.

Only long-term absentees Gerard Deulofeu, Daryl Janmaat and Isaac Success are definitely out and will play no further part in the 2019/20 campaign.

However, big news came ahead of this clash as the Mirror revealed that Andre Gray, Domingos Quina and Nathaniel Chalobah have been dropped after a lockdown party that the former hosted.

For this afternoon’s fixture, Nigel Pearson has made three changes to his starting line-up as Craig Cathcart, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Roberto Pereyra replace Christian Kabasele, Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverly.

Watford starting line-up: Foster, Femenia, Dawson, Cathcart, Masina, Hughes, Capoue, Sarr, Doucoure, Pereyra, Deeney

Subs: Gomes, Mariappa, Cleverly, Welbeck, Penaranda, Joao Pedro, Holebas, Kabasele, Pussetto

Saints starting line-up: McCarthy, Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Bertrand, Smallbone, Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Redmond, Long, Ings

Subs: Gunn, Adams, Armstrong, Obafemi, Vokins, Danso, Valery, Tella, Jankewitz