Southampton - Stoke: Hosts looking to continue good run

Third-placed Southampton will be looking to continue their flying start to the season against a Stoke side who have lost one of their last four.

Southampton - Stoke: Hosts looking to continue good run
Southampton won their last home game 8-0, a record for the club. (Image credit: BBC)
tyron-mcgee
By Tyron McGee
  • The league's best defence will be looking to continue their outstanding start to the season against a Stoke side who are beginning to produce the form of a top-half side. Southampton's last Premier League game ended in an 8-0 humiliation of Sunderland, Dušan Tadić scoring one and assisting four. Stoke edged past Swansea in their previous game, with a controversial penalty decision aiding Stoke's victory.
  • Last five matches (head-to-head)
  • Southampton 2-2 Stoke (2013/14 Premier League)
  • Stoke 1-1 Southampton (2013/14 Premier League)
  • Southampton 1-1 Stoke (2012/13 Premier League)
  • Stoke 3-3 Southampton (2012/13 Premier League)
  • Stoke 3-2 Southampton (2007/08 Championship)
  • Asmir Begovic smiles after scoring a goal against the Saints last season.
    • The past five games have not been short of goals, though victories are come at a premium, with four draws in the last five meetings between the sides. The last victory for either side came in the 2007/08 Championship season (in which Stoke were promoted), the Potters ran out 3-2 winners. The home side on the day led that match 3-0 at half-time. Since then, times have changed. Stoke have established themselves as a Premier League team, whilst Southampton have been relegated to League One and pushed their way back into the Premier League after a seven-year absence.
    • Team News
    • The Saints have no new injury concerns following their 8-0 rout of Sunderland just under a week ago. James Ward-Prowse and Jay Rodriguez are still out until the New Year, but Ronald Koeman has nothing to worry about with his side currently in third place in the league, with 19 goals already scored this season. Four Stoke players face late fitness tests before Saturday's match. Victor Moses, who was at the centre of the controversy last weekend, has a thigh injury, as does Marko Arnautovic, who will also have a fitness test. Mark Hughes will be hoping that Robert Huth and Phil Bardsley are fit to play, with the Stoke defence looking pretty bare without them.

    Pre-match comments

    Southampton manager Ronald Koeman has maintained that his squad are not overconfident after their huge win last week, and knows that Stoke will provide a tough challenge:

  • "After eight games everyone knows about the qualities of the Southampton team,” he said. “They know that we score a lot of goals. If you make it an open game and you try to attack we will get a lot of space and it will be a problem for our opponents. We are trying to play attractive football and score goals but that comes from a good organisation. That is one of our qualities."
  • "We have only received five goals, that’s also a quality to win games, not only to score goals, but also to keep clean sheets. We know we can start much better against Stoke City than we did last weekend. We showed the players some clips from the first 20 minutes on Wednesday, because it wasn’t the way I like to start a game at home."
  • "Stoke City are one of the best teams at set pieces. We know that we must be at our best in that area. They bring a lot of physical qualities but we are at home. We have to bring 100 per cent to every game. We do specific defender training and we defend crosses because Peter Crouch is a striker of Stoke City. One of his qualities is crosses into the box and we have to defend that in a good way."
  • Mark Hughes, on the other hand, discussed his side's start to the season, and the opposition players + manager:
  • "To win 8-0 was an outstanding performance. They're on an obvious high but we're confident ourselves. I'd like to think we will make a better fist of it, I might suggest. We recognise the talent they have but so have we. When you make a lot of changes in a short space of time like they did, then it is difficult."
  • "They lost key players, they lost the manager and as a consequence of that there was a fear that it could be a difficult season for them. But, they were able to spend a good amount of money in the summer and they have brought good quality players in. The impressive thing for me is that they have added good players with good attitudes to their squad. Ronald has done a wonderful job up until now."
  • "At the beginning of the season views are shaped very quickly. As a consequence of losing two home games people think we've had a poor start but we've done ok. We've won two back to back at home now and we've been better on our travels than we were at this stage last season. We're only eight games in and there have been four or five international breaks which have distupted things a little bit, I would suggest. It's still early and I'll be happy when it settles down - we can get a good run of form with games under our belt."
  • Prediction: Southampton 1-1 Stoke