Southampton will be looking to build on their good form before the international break when they face Newcastle United at St Mary's on Saturday.
The majority of people tipped the saints to struggle this season with the departure of their coach Mauricio Pochettino to Tottenham and a £92 million summer clear-out. That saw the departures of key players, such as: Dejan Lovren, Callum Chambers, Luke Shaw, Rickie Lambert and captain Adam Lallana. Despite an opening day defeat to Liverpool new man Ronald Koeman’s side has made a good start with four points under their belt including a 3-1 victory away to West Ham the last time out.
The same can’t be said for Newcastle United as they are yet to win this season and have only claimed two points far, this one of a many problems on Tyneside with increasing fan frustration from not replacing key players Hatem Ben Arfa (Hull City) and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (AS Roma) before the window shut. There is also rumours that Mike Ashley is to sell Newcastle to buy a bigger stake in Rangers, all of this has increased the pressure on manager Alan Pardew who supposedly has two games to save his job and will be hoping he can get three points at his old stomping ground.
Koeman could give three of his summer signings their first starts Saturday afternoon with ; Toby Alderweireld, Florian Gardos and Sadio Mane all in contention of starting. The Dutchman is also willing to give Mane the chance to return for his debut after work permit regulations prevented him from returning to England after international duty, saints are still without striker Jay Rodriguez aswell as Lloyd Isgrove and Sam Gallagher.
A positive for Newcastle is that both midfielders Jack Colback and Check Tiote are both likely to return for the trip to the South coast, Colback was forced to pull out the England squad due to a calf problem and Tiote showed he was fit after his hamstring injury by playing the full 90 minutes for Ivory Coast in their two games.
Striker Papiss Cisse is only a fortnight away from returning after his serious knee injury last season, however a thigh injury has kept new signing Siem De Jong out for at least three months which is a big blow to the magpies. They will also be without youngster Rolando Aarons (hamstring) and Facundo Ferrerya (back) for this crucial fixture.