Analyis: Southampton - Everton - Can the Blues fix their defensive woes?

After both Everton and Southampton earned draw in their previous fixtures, both teams will be looking to get all three points as both teams will battle it out at St.Mary's Stadium

Analyis: Southampton - Everton - Can the Blues fix their defensive woes?
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By Vijay Vemu

Everton will be looking to pick up their first win of the Premier League season, as they travel to Southampton for the early kick-off on Saturday.

It was a slightly disappointing start to the season for the Blues last week, as they only took a point against newly promoted Watford at Goodison Park, drawing 2-2.

After giving a goal up to the Hornets, Ross Barkley equalized with a terrific hit from outside the box to equalize. But minutes after Watford came back and took the lead back, before Arouna Koné scored a late equaliser as Everton stole a point. 

Who will be looking to impress?

Romelu Lukaku will hope to be more involved in Saturday's game. The Belgian was not involved as much against Watford as many hoped he would, so he'll be looking to embrace the physical battle against Southampton's backline. Tom Cleverley will be assured of more minutes at his new club, after a good performance last week.

No Baines

One player that the Blues will be without is Leighton Baines, after the England left-back was confirmed as being  out for 12-14 weeks following ankle surgery. Everton will be scrambling for a replacement, and will look to Bryan Oviedo as the man due to Luke Garbutt being out on loan. However, it would be foolish to expect Oviedo to replicate the type of performances Baines usually puts in.

Where could Everton be troubled? 

The game could certainly be won and lost in the physical battles between strikers and centre backs, with Lukaku up against Southampton's Jose Fonte, whilst Phil Jagielka will be tightly marking Graziano Pelle for Everton.

Pelle was the main man goal wise for the Saints last year, and he could prove to be a huge threat to Everton on Saturday, after getting off to a scoring start last week in the 2-2 draw with Newcastle.

He, alongside the pacy Saido Mane, could cause Roberto Martinez's side problems, after the Everton defence's poor performance against Watford.

One area that Everton could target, somewhat surprisingly, is Southampton's defence. After having the second best in the league last season, both right-back Nathaniel Clyne and defensive-midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin have left this summer.

Those departures, combined with the injury to goalkeeper Fraser Forster, might just give Everton some hope in terms of taking the game to the Saints.

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About the author
Vijay Vemu
Vijay is a sports journalist who covers mainly the NBA and soccer. He is a credential reporter on the Chicago Fire and also covers NBA for VAVEL as well. He is also a editor for Mash Chicago, the publication of the Chicago Tribune. He is also a contributor at SB Nation's Blog A Bull and Big East Coast Bias as well as writing on European Soccer as well. He plans on attending the University of Illnois at Chicago (UIC) in the fall with a major in computer science. You can follow him on Twitter : @VJVemu