Southampton will face Burnley this weekend in a game both teams will think is winnable. The Saints have yet to win or draw in their Premier League and Carabao cup ties whilst Burnley snuck through on penalties against Sheffield United after a loss to Leicester in the league.

Chris Wood is Burnley’s main threat whilst Danny Ings continued last season’s scoring form last weekend albeit in a 5-2 loss to Tottenham.

* Team news 

Southampton

Nathan Redmond is the only player officially missing from The Saints squad, Mohammed Salisu is training but unlikely to feature.

Burnley

New signing Dale Stephens may feature but Burnley have a busy treatment room. Ben Mee, James Tarkowski are ruled out, whilst wingers Robbie Brady and Johann Berg Gudmundsson, midfielder Jack Cork and striker Ashley Barnes are all unavailable and a midweek injury to ex-Saint Jay Rodriguez leaves The Clarets short on first team players.  

* Ones to watch

Southampton – Alex McCarthy

McCarthy has established himself as number one against strong competition from Fraser Forster and Angus Gunn over the last two seasons but finds himself under pressure.

Rumours of a swap deal involving Gunn and Jack Butland of Stoke persist, and McCarthy needs some big performances to continue as Saints number one.

Burnley – Matej Vydra

Matej Vydra in the past has often been seen and used as Burnley’s fourth striker behind Barnes, Wood and Rodriguez, but 2 goals so far this season could see him forcing himself up the pecking order and more goals against Southampton would give Sean Dyche a nice headache for future games.

* Last time out

It was over a year ago at the start of the 2019/2020 season that these teams met at Turf Moor last season. Burnley were run away winners with 2 goals from Barnes and one from Johann Berg Gudmundsson.

Later that season Burnley completed a double over The Saints when Ashley Westwood scored direct from a corner and Vydra, replacing the injured Chris Wood, struck the winner after Danny Ings equaliser.

* Where to watch

The game is live at 20.00, Saturday 26th September, on Sky Sports

* Key quotes

Ralph Hassenhüttl

Hassenhüttl commented on why Saints struggled last season against Sean Dyche’s team:

“I think even the best teams get affected by their game because it’s simple and clear.”

“Good first touch balls behind the last line causes everybody problems. You have to adapt your game to this.”

“But I think we also have some qualities in our game that can hurt them. I think we showed in the last game (against them) we had good chances to score, we had a fantastic goal from Ingsy after counter-pressing, so we have to pay attention to every part of our game.”

“If we have a good performance then we definitely have the quality to win against Burnley.”

“We want to show ourselves, that we are further in our development from last season. This is the goal for the weekend.”

“I think it is a good game to come up for us because we know about the difficulty and we go there and want to show up.”

On injuries:

“We have Reddy still out with an ankle injury, but everybody else can train with us,”

“We will have to have a look at him next week to see if it is possible for him to work with the team.”

“We won’t take any risks there because we have the international break that gives us two weeks to work hard with him, and then we can decide what we do.

“We had a few issues after the game (against Tottenham). It took a little bit longer for some of the other players to recover, but now everybody is on the pitch.

“We had a few good sessions this week and we will take this squad into the game against Burnley.”

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