Southampton vs Newcastle: Premier League match preview
A look ahead to this weekend’s Premier League clash at St Mary’s
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Your support makes all the difference.Southampton have dismissed fears that they are a team on the drop following their summer exodus with a positive start to the season, bouncing back from a season-opening defeat to Liverpool to take four points from their matches against West Brom and West Ham.
With Ronald Koeman now at the helm, Saints look to be dealing with the radical changes rather well, and the 3-1 victory over the Hammers last time out saw wantaway midfielder Morgan Scheiderlin remind everyone why he is in high demand as he bagged a brace at Upton Park. Summer signing Graziano Pell also bagged his first league goal since arriving at St Mary’s having hit the back of the net in the League Cup victory over Millwall, and there appears to be a lot of light at the end of what seemed to be an extremely dark tunnel for Southampton fans.
In contrast, Newcastle appear to be edging towards turmoil after owner Mike Ashley was linked with selling the club in order to take a larger shareholding in Scottish side Rangers. The same reports claim that manager Alan Pardew has just two matches to save his job, and the news that Siem De Jong will miss “a number of months” has only made things worse on Tyneside.
Back-to-back draws may not be the worst results in the world, but the manner of which the Magpies through away the victory against Crystal Palace a fortnight ago did not help Pardew’s case, and the pressure will be on summer acquisition Emmanuel Riviere to show why the club shelled out £5m for him as he continues to search for his first goal for the club.
KICK-OFF: Saturday, 3pm
PAST THREE MEETINGS:
Southampton 4 (Rodriguez 2, Lambert, Lallana) Newcastle 0, 29 March 2014, Premier League.
Newcastle 1 (Gouffran) Southampton 1 (Rodriguez), 14 December 2013, Premier League
Newcastle 4 (Sissoko, Cisse, Cabaye, Hooiveld OG) Southampton 2 (Schneiderlin, Lambert), 24 February 2013, Premier league.
STATS:
Seven of Southampton’s last nine goals scored against Newcastle in the past two seasons were netted by players who are either unavailable this weekend or have left the club.
Two points from three games represents Newcastle’s worst start to a Premier League season since the 2005-06 season when they had just a single point – they had more at this point when they were relegated in 2008-09.
The two clubs have only met four times since in eight years, with Southampton winning two and Newcastle winning one.
Newcastle are one of eight teams that are yet to win a league match this season.
ODDS:
Southampton – 1.82
Newcastle – 5.2
Draw – 3.85
TV: Highlights on BBC1 at 10.50pm.
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