Liverpool’s title challenge continues as they travel away to face Southampton in hopes of moving back to 1st place.
Liverpool are currently 1 point off the league leaders City having played the same amount of games so a win is absolutely necessary right now for them to keep up in the title race.
Meanwhile, Southampton are currently 16th and still are in a relegation battle, however they are 5 points clear of 18th Cardiff and with a win could massively strengthen their quest for survival.
Liverpool are currently showing some great form going unbeaten in 13 and currently riding a 4 game win streak including bagging wins against Bayern and Tottenham. Liverpool’s last 2 league games have been extremely dramatic as they netted two late winners against Fulham and Tottenham to stay within striking distance in the title race. Liverpool have shown a great character to get these wins and may need to do it again here at Southampton.
Southampton have hit good form themselves having won 3 of their last 4 league games and each of their last 2 knocking off Tottenham 2-1 and picking up an away win at a tough place at Brighton 0-1 this weekend. Southampton have hit good form at the right time which has allowed them to make a bit of a gap from relegation zone.
Liverpool’s away form has been slightly suspect entering this game. Only 3 wins from 8 in 2019 on their travels, but they have won each of their last 2 in Munich against Bayern and defeated Fulham in their most recent away game 1-2 with a late winner by James Milner so maybe they are starting to pick up good away form again which is crucial coming into these final stages of the season. Liverpool do overall have the best away record in the league (10W 5D 1L).
Southampton have not been a good home side all season with just 4 wins from 15. However, their home form has picked up recently and they’ve won 3 of their last 5 home games and each of their last 2 and have only lost 1 of their last 5 at home so St Mary’s have been a relatively tough place to go to lately. Southampton have beaten Arsenal and Tottenham already at home this season and stole points from Man Utd though so despite a poor overall home record they’re no strangers to stealing pts from big clubs at home which is why Liverpool must absolutely be on their game here.
Sadio Mane is of course the most in form player for Liverpool right now and the man to watch. Although he went scoreless against Spurs, Mane does have 11 goals in his last 12 apps for Liverpool.
James Ward Prowse is the man to watch for Southampton. 2nd highest scorer with 6 in the league for the club and is on good form with 3 goals in his last 4 apps. Ward-Prowse’s set pieces is something that can cause a ton of problems for Liverpool especially as he’s one of the best set piece takers in the league.
Liverpool have had good luck against Southampton in recent H2H winning 3 consecutive games against them. Liverpool beat Southampton at Anfield earlier this season 3-0 comfortably as they put 3 goals past their opponents in the first half to put the game to bed early.
Liverpool have had their struggles at St Mary’s lately though winning in 1 of their last 4 visits (2L 1D) although they did win there in their last visit 0-2 last season to snap a 3 game winless run at Southampton. Liverpool will hope to repeat that performance here and go top of the league.
Liverpool are massive bookies favourites to win this game offered at 1.45 whereas Southampton to win is 8.00. Draw is tipped at 4.75. Odds based on Unibet.
Team News
Southampton: Mario Lemina and Michael Obafemi are both out with injuries while Danny Ings is out as Liverpool is his parent club. Jannik Vestergaard and Shane Long could return however.
Liverpool: Joe Gomez and Oxlade-Chamberlain are unlikely to feature despite being back in training while Virgil van Dijk is expected to be available despite picking up a knock against Tottenham last week.
Betting Stats
Southampton have covered 66.7% of their total goal overs at home this season (10-5) which is 2nd best percentage in the league.
Southampton have only covered 33.3% of their total 1st half goal overs at home this season (5-2-8) however. More goals tend to fly in 2nd halves of their home games.
Southampton average 2.6 bookings per game at home this season at home in the league (39 bookings in 15 games).
