Southampton v Tottenham: Spoils to be shared at St Mary's

 Southampton v Tottenham: Spoils to be shared at St Mary's

Southampton and Spurs need to put opening weekend defeats behind them, but Paul Robinson can't see either side winning at St Mary's...

Southampton v Tottenham
Sunday 20 September, 12:00
Live on BT Sport

Hope turns to horror for Hasenhüttl

The Saints have had a difficult first week to this new season, as after being widely tipped to do well this year, they lost their opening league match at Crystal Palace, and then went on to be knocked out at home by Brentford in the Carabao Cup.

Southampton failed to find the net in either of those two matches, and it isn't like Ralph Hasenhüttl played a weakened XI against the Championship side. Both Danny Ings and Che Adams started in attack, and with rumours linking the former away from the South Coast, it could be time to start rethinking their expectations for this season.

As for the team news for this game, Stuart Armstrong, is back in training, so he will at least feature in the squad. Nathan Redmond is out with an ankle injury picked up in midweek though, which means that Will Smallbone and Moussa Djenepo will line up behind Ings and Adams.

Spurs need to be Baled out

It's been the Gareth Bale story for Spurs this week, and the fact that they progressed through to the next round of the Europa League has barely gone noticed. They nearly didn't however, as two late goals were required, and they were aided by their opponent being reduced to nine men for the final 10 minutes.

Bale won't feature against Southampton, and at time of writing, the deal hasn't been concluded anyway. Jose Mourinho can't afford for his players to show any lingering effects from their trip to Bulgaria, as their Premier League campaign got off to a very poor start last weekend.

Everton came to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and beat them 1-0, and given that Dele Alli was left at home following that game, it will be interesting to see if he gets back into the side - especially as Giovani Lo Celso impressed on his return on Thursday.

Value to be had on the draw

Spurs are the favourites for this one, with their price trading at around the 2.46 mark on the Betfair Exchange. A home win is 3.25, and the draw is the outsider of the party at 3.45.

I wouldn't say that this is a must-win game for either team, but it's certainly a mustn't lose. Back to back Premier League defeats at the beginning of a season is never a good thing - and it would be three losses in a row for Southampton, in all competitions.

I do quite like the draw in this match, regardless. The visitors are the stronger side, but they are yet to really fire under Mourinho, and it could take until Bale is back in a Spurs shirt for that improvement to come.

Tottenham ended the previous campaign with three draws from their final five away outings, and after a long-midweek trip, a point wouldn't be too bad.

Low-scoring affair expected

The market is somewhat undecided when it comes to Over/Under 2.5 Goals. The Under is the marginal favourite at 1.92, with 2.06 being available for three goals or more.

I don't particularly see goals in this game. As mentioned above, the Saints couldn't find the net against either Crystal Palace or Brentford, and they are now without the injured, Redmond.

Spurs did score twice in the Europa, but they both came when their opponent had 9 men on the pitch, and they didn't look like scoring against Everton last Sunday.

Of note, these two teams met twice at St Mary's last term, and both matches saw Under 2.5 backers collect.

Key Opta Stat

Tottenham haven't started a Premier League campaign with back-to-back defeats since 2011-12. However, Spurs are unbeaten in their first away game in each of their last four Premier League seasons (W2 D2).