Tottenham Hotspur versus Southampton Premier League Preview

A quick glance at the table tells us much of what we need to know when it comes to this match-up. For the second year in a row, Southampton is in a relegation scrap, while Tottenham is fighting for a top four spot and more.

As Tottenham continue their whirlwind of games across December, they find themselves hosting a struggling Southampton FC side midweek in the Premier League. Winners of only one game thus far this season, Southampton is fighting for their survival in League, while Tottenham still has more wins than all but two teams in the league.  So, what can we expect from this seemingly lopsided affair?

Recent History of Tottenham and Southampton

Since Mauricio Pochettino left Southampton for north London, Spurs have held sway over the head-to-head match-ups with Pochettino’s old club. Tottenham have five wins against only 1 defeat and two draws since the 2014-15 season in league. Further Spurs have doubled Southampton’s offensive production with 18 goals in those 8 games, as opposed to nine goals for Southampton.

This recent run of success even betters Tottenham’s historical Premier League record against Southampton, which is 39 Wins, 19 Draws, and 24 defeats from 82 games. The wins + draws percentage all time of 70% isn’t that much better than Pochettino’s 62.5% pure winning percentage and well below his 87.5% win + draw percentage against his old club.

Recent Form for Southampton and Tottenham

Southampton is on a run of three draws from their last 5 games, including their most recent 2-2 draw with Manchester United. While the result seems good in the grand scheme of things- having lost a 2-0 lead- it was ultimately the last game Mark Hughes would manager for Southampton. As of writing this article, Southampton are still without a manager and will be lead by First Team Assistant Kelvin Davis, who has been at Southampton since 2006.

The real problem has been a struggle to score goals, where Southampton has managed only 12 goals on the season. This includes one five game stretch where Southampton didn’t score at all. Their first goal in game six was their single goal in a 6-1 drubbing from Manchester City.

Compounding the lack of goals has been the penchant to give up goals. They have pulled the ball out of the back of their own net 26 times this season, more than all but three teams in the Premier League. Beyond the six from Manchester City, Southampton has given up at least 2 goals in 9 of their 14 games.

That said, Southampton has managed 4 shutouts this season, but only 1 has resulted in a win- their 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace. The other three were draws. That last clean sheet was the last weekend in October and the squad has given up 12 goals in their last 4 games.

On the other hand, beyond the emotional loss to Arsenal this past weekend, Tottenham Hotspur has started to show some form. While the whole of the squad is still not healthy, there has been enough quality across the team to maintain pace with most of the league leaders- as second through fifth place are currently within six points of each other.

The issue that seems to be holding Spurs back has been finding the net. The number of shots has been decent and even the shots on goal okay. Still, many have been right at the keepers over the last few weeks, preventing the team from really having a coming-out party on the season. To put the scoring woes for Spurs into perspective, Arsenal have as many second-half goals this season as Spurs do goals with 25.

Unfortunately for Southampton, this may be that game for Spurs. It is safe to say this game may mean a little something extra to Pochettino and his team knows it.  Expect Spurs to come out sharp, humming and ready to lay the hammer down.

A Tail of Five Managers

When a new manager is appointed for Southampton, presumably in the next week, that person will be their 5th manager since June of 2014, when Mauricio Pochettino left to join Tottenham Hotspur. Since then Ronald Koeman, Claude Puel, Mauricio Pellegrino, and Mark Hughes have held the reigns for Southampton FC.

Koeman did a commendable job for Southampton finishing seventh and sixth in his two seasons at the helm. So commendable, he was snatched up by Everton, where he lasted about 15 months and hasn’t managed since. Puel held form and had the squad finish 8th in 2016-17, which got him the job at Leicester City, where he still plies his trade.

With Pellegrino, the wheels started to come off and the squad dropped to 17th last season, just avoiding relegation. Now with Hughes already gone and the team in 18th place, whoever gets the full-time job has their work cut out for them.

Conversely in that same time, Spurs have finished 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, and currently sit fifth in the League. It feels good to Mauricio Pochettino as manager and stability in the coaching staff.

Prediction

Okay, so last week with Arsenal didn’t turn out so hot with the prediction, but I think this midweek clash will get us back on the side of good.

Aaron Coe

Spurs 5 Southampton 1

Rotation or not, the people on the field on Wednesday in Wembley are going to be hungry. It should be becoming abundantly clear to all the Spurs, particularly with the January window right around the corner, that to keep playing come the new year, you better be producing. While it is easy to complain about Spurs depth in comparison to say Liverpool or City, it is strong. We should see some fresh motivated legs on the field and a scoring spree should result.

Zaph Hutson

Spurs 3 Southampton 1

The scales are definitely tipped in Tottenham’s favor. There’s really no comparing these two sides. Southampton will look a bit more dangerous than what we would have thought. This will only be because it is a midweek match and Pochettino will be resting some big players. Spurs will get the win and, as a bonus, might pass Arsenal to move up the table.