Tottenham vs Southampton: Premier League match preview

Mauricio Pochettino will hope that Tottenham can recapture their early season form and secure their first league win in five as the manager faces Southampton for the first time since leaving the Saints in the summer. Tottenham’s confident start to the season stalled when they followed a 3-0 defeat at Liverpool with stuttering performances against Sunderland and West Brom, and they are now five points behind Pochettino’s former club in eighth place.

Ronald Koeman has enjoyed a fairy tale start to his career as Southampton manager, the club finding themselves in second place even after offloading seemingly their entire first-team squad in the summer. They have scored freely despite the departures of Adam Lallana and Ricky Lambert, and have the league’s meanest defence despite selling Dejan Lovren. All three ended up at Liverpool, who beat the Saints at Anfield on the opening day.

Since then, the fixture list has been relatively kind to them – this will be the sternest test yet of whether their league position flatters them.

KICK-OFF: Sunday, 2.05pm

PAST THREE MEETINGS…

Tottenham 3 (Eriksson 2, Sigurdsson 1) Southampton 2 (Rodriguez, Lallana), Premier League, March 2014

Southampton 2 (Lallana, Lambert) Tottenham 3 (Adebayor 2, Hooiveld OG), Premier League, December 2013

Tottenham 1 (Bale) Southampton 0, Premier League, May 2013

open image in gallery

STATS…

There has been a goal in each of the last 13 clashes between the sides – the last goalless draw they played was in January 2001.

Southampton have conceded the fewest goals in the Premier League this season, with just four.

The Saints have had eight different scorers in the league this year, joint second behind Chelsea.

Erik Lamela has started all six of Tottenham’s Premier League fixtures this season, twice as many starts as in the whole of last season.

ODDS…

Tottenham to win: 2.1

Southampton to win: 3.4

Draw: 3.4

TV: Highlights on BBC1 at 10.30pm.