Southampton aiming to complete season-double over Sean Dyche's Everton

Recently, Southampton have advanced to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup where they will play Arne Slot's Liverpool in the home fixture next month. While Southampton have taken three consecutive wins in the Cup competition, the Saints are still aiming to secure their first three points of the season after eight league defeats from the first nine matches.

Although the Saints couldn't register a win against Steve Cooper's Leicester City last week despite taking an early 2-0 lead, Russell Martin's side have a great opportunity to register a convincing win over Sean Dyche's Everton in the home fixture. Everton also started their league season similar to the Saints as they faced four consecutive league defeats before taking their first point with a 1-1 draw against Leicester City.

Southampton aiming to complete season-double over Sean Dyche's Everton

However, unlike Southampton, Sean Dyche's side have been unbeaten in the league since that match and have registered two important wins over bottom-table sides Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town as well. On top of that, Everton played a 0-0 draw with Newcastle United and a 1-1 draw with Fulham and are currently sixteenth in the league table with nine points after a struggling start in the ongoing campaign.

The visitors have also kept two clean-sheets in the previous five Premier League matches and their previous defeat across all competitions came against Russell Martin's side in the Carabao Cup two months ago. The Saints displayed an encouraging defensive performance throughout that match to keep the score level at 1-1, and goalkeeper Alex McCarthy gave a masterclass display by saving Ashley Young's penalty to give Southampton a massive 6-5 win on penalties.

Since then, both Southampton and Everton have improved their overall performance in the English top flight but unlike the visitors, a first league win has eluded Russell Martin's side. Further, Crystal Palace also took a first Premier League win over Tottenham Hotspurs in the previous matchday and newly promoted side Ipswich Town were very close to taking their first league win as well, but were defeated 4-3 by Thomas Frank's Brentford.

Hence, this match is a must-win match for Southampton as securing the three points in this six-pointer home fixture can play a key role in their ambitions to avoid relegation. However, Everton are highly talented and a well balanced side having in-form goalscorers such as Dwight McNeil and Iliman Ndiaye alongside the rock-solid centre-back partnership of Michael Keane and Everton captain James Tarkowski.

In the previous matchday, Everton secured an important point as Beto scored a last-minute 1-1 equaliser against Fulham which highlighted their resilient performance. Now, Russell Martin's side will need to score a lot of goals and take a first clean-sheet to build the foundation for securing a season-double over Everton with a first Premier League win.

A few lineup changes in the attack are expected and James Bree could also get some playing time in this match. Moreover, it remains to be seen whether Southampton can register a first league win in front of their home fans.