Can Southampton Continue Improvement Against West Ham
There is just one fixture on Thursday 27th December and it sees Southampton welcome West Ham United to St Mary’s Stadium.
The gloom seems to have been lifted for Southampton and prior to the fixtures on Boxing Day they sit 16th place in the Premier League. There is a chance they may have dropped down a place by the time this game kicks-off but will have an opportunity to solidify their place outside the relegation zone.
West Ham find themselves in 12th place ahead of the Boxing Day matches and will be hoping a win is good enough to send them into the top half of the table ahead of the New Year.
Southampton have seen a complete change in fortunes since Ralph Hasenhuttl has taken over as manager of the club. Having gone twelve Premier League matches without a win, the Austrian has steered the Saints to two wins in succession.
Not only have Southampton won, they have played some good attacking football and the 3-2 home win against Arsenal was impressive. This was followed by a very good display in the 3-1 win victory at fellow relegation candidates Huddersfield Town on the weekend.
Trends show Southampton are undefeated in their last four home Premier League games but three of those have ended in draws. Only once in their last six home league games have the Saints managed to keep a clean sheet and that problem will be next on the agenda for Hasenhuttl to solve.
Big things were expected of West Ham when they hosted Watford on Saturday but they slumped to a 2-0 defeat at the London Stadium. It was a great chance for West Ham to record their fifth straight win of the season but they were defeated by the better team.
Manuel Pellegrini will be hoping it was just a blip in what has been a good run of form for the Hammers. Trends show West Ham have lost only two of their last nine Premier League games. Interestingly, they have lost only one of their last six on the road and there is a feeling West Ham perform better away from home.
Trends show West Ham are undefeated in their last four away Premier League games and have scored in each of those games.
Team news and Southampton are waiting for news on the fitness of Cedric Soares and Ryan Bertrand. Danny Ings is expected to keep his place in attack and Charlie Austin will also be hoping to start.
West Ham’s injury woes continued on the weekend and Fabian Balbuena picked up a knock in the loss to Watford. Lucas Perez, Jack Wilshere, Marko Arnautovic, Manuel Lanzini and Winston Reid are working their way back to fitness but are not expected to be involved.
This has the potential to be a very exciting game, with plenty of attacking intent. Expect to see goals and with their recent upturn in form, it could be Southampton who come out on top.
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