EPL

Southampton v Tottenham: Preview and prediction

By Sports Desk March 17, 2023

Tottenham may only have the Premier League to focus on in the final months of the season, but that is motivation enough for coach Antonio Conte.

Spurs exited the FA Cup and the Champions League in quick succession at the start of March.

It means another season will pass without Tottenham winning silverware, but they still have plenty to play for, fourth in the Premier League and in the final Champions League qualification place heading into Saturday's game at lowly Southampton.

Just being in the Premier League is a challenge that means a great deal to Conte, he explained ahead of the Saints match.

"I think that for sure to play the Premier League, to be a coach in the Premier League means you have to be ready to face a great competition," he said.

"To face important players, important clubs, important coaches... and for this reason, the motivation is really, really high.

"For this reason, you want to be strong, to have a strong team and to try to be competitive."

 

Conte appears focused again on the task at hand, describing his discussion of potentially being sacked after losing to Milan as "a joke".

"I don't think the club is thinking this," he said.

Opponents Saints have sacked two coaches this season, with Ruben Selles now tasked with keeping them in the top flight.

With an international break following this weekend's action, Selles sees the meeting with Spurs as key.

"I don't want to sit on defeat for one hour, that is what I can tell you," he said. "So, imagine for two weeks.

"I will prepare every game to win the game, to do the best performance we can and to get the best results."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Southampton – James Ward-Prowse

Southampton dominated the possession against Brentford in midweek but attempted only seven shots and one on target.

They need more creativity on the ball so will inevitably turn to captain James Ward-Prowse, who has created more chances both from set plays and in open play than any team-mate this season. He also scored against Tottenham in the reverse fixture.

Tottenham – Richarlison

After announcing his frustration at his limited playing time following Tottenham's Champions League exit, Richarlison looked to have come up with an ideal response when he found the net early against Nottingham Forest.

But his celebrations were for nought due to the tightest of offside calls. He is still without a Premier League goal in 18 games for Tottenham, although he netted five against Southampton for Everton.

 

MATCH PREDICTION – TOTTENHAM WIN

Expect goals in this one, as Southampton have scored at least once in each of their past 14 Premier League games against Spurs while keeping just one clean sheet in their last 21 against them.

Southampton have won only two of their 10 home league games against Tottenham since returning to the top flight in 2012, with Spurs now aiming to complete a home-and-away double over Saturday's opponents for a seventh time in the Premier League era.

Conte's side will have to snap a four-game losing run away from home in all competitions, but Southampton are winless in 15 games against teams starting the day in the top four of the table.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Tottenham – 54.0 per cent

Southampton – 20.3 per cent

Draw – 25.7 per cent

Related items

  • Tuchel replicates Beckenbauer feat and Coman maintains title run: The Opta facts behind Bayern's Bundesliga triumph Tuchel replicates Beckenbauer feat and Coman maintains title run: The Opta facts behind Bayern's Bundesliga triumph

    In 2000, it was Bayer Leverkusen who suffered final-day heartbreak as Bayern Munich overhauled them to clinch one of their most dramatic Bundesliga title triumphs.

    This time around, it was Borussia Dortmund's turn to lament the most galling of near misses, while their rivals lifted the Meisterschale following Jamal Musiala's late winner at Koln.

    The most topsy-turvy title race in Europe's top-five leagues this campaign, therefore, ended in familiar fashion, with Bayern maintaining their stranglehold on the German crown.

    After Bayern overcame a stern Dortmund challenge to win their 11th consecutive Bundesliga title, Stats Perform looks at the best facts and figures to emerge from their triumphant campaign.

    The headline stats

    There has never been much doubt regarding Bayern's status as the dominant force in Germany. Their latest title win represents their 33rd overall, and their 32nd since the Bundesliga was founded in 1963. Combined, all other clubs in Bundesliga history have 28.

    Meanwhile, Bayern's current streak of 11 consecutive domestic titles is the longest such run in the history of Europe's top five leagues.

    However, as the decision to dispense with Julian Nagelsmann's services and bring in Thomas Tuchel in March would suggest, this has not been a vintage campaign for Bayern.

    Having edged out Dortmund on goal difference after both teams finished with 71 points, Bayern's class of 2022-23 collected the fewest points of any Bundesliga-winning team since 2009-10, when Die Roten were crowned champions with 70.

    Bayern's tally of 21 victories this term was actually bettered by Dortmund (22), who became just the second team in the three-points-for-a-win era to boast the most wins in a Bundesliga season and not win the title (after Leverkusen in 1996-97).

    Tuchel takes the prize

    While Tuchel's Bayern did not get close to the incredible point tallies recorded under Jupp Heynckes, Pep Guardiola or Carlo Ancelotti, the new boss did enough, rallying his team to collect 12 from their final five matches and pip his former employers at the last.

    Tuchel became only the second coach to take over a Bundesliga club during the second half of a season and lead them to the title, after the legendary Franz Beckenbauer did so with Bayern in 1993-94.

    While Beckenbauer took the reins from matchday 21 of that campaign, Tuchel did so from matchday 26 this term, making it the latest managerial change from a Bundesliga-winning team.

    Muller extends his record, Musiala the main man

    Bayern's last-gasp triumph also ensured several key players kept up their own incredible records of domestic success.

    While attacking stalwart Thomas Muller won a record-extending 12th German title, Kingsley Coman – who opened the scoring in Bayern's final-day win at Koln – preserved his record of finishing every season of his professional career as a domestic champion.

    Having won Ligue 1 twice with Paris Saint-Germain and Serie A as a Juventus player in 2014-15, Coman has now lifted the Meisterschale eight times during his spell in Bavaria.

    Those records, however, owe everything to Musiala's intervention against Koln, with the 20-year-old stepping off the bench to fire into the bottom-right corner as stoppage time loomed.

    That strike was his 12th of the Bundesliga campaign, one more than he had managed in 57 combined appearances in the competition before this season.

    It was a fitting way for Musiala to cap a season in which only Eintracht Frankfurt's Randal Kolo Muani (26) bettered his tally of 22 Bundesliga goal contributions.

  • Tatum on White's buzzer-beater: 'That s*** was crazy!' Tatum on White's buzzer-beater: 'That s*** was crazy!'

    Boston Celtics hero Derrick White said "It just had to be won" after his buzzer-beating tip-in forced the Eastern Conference finals to Game 7, as Jayson Tatum added: "That s*** was crazy!"

    From 3-0 down against the Miami Heat, the Celtics have fought back to 3-3 in the series, and are now just one win away from making history.

    White grabbed and then sank the rebound from Marcus Smart's failed three-pointer with 0.1 seconds remaining to seal a 104-103 victory in Miami on Saturday.

    The Celtics are now on the brink of the greatest comeback in NBA playoffs history, needing a win at home in Game 7 on Monday to become the first team to win a series after losing the first three games.

    Boston are only the fourth NBA team to erase a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series to force a deciding game.

    Reflecting on the game-winning moment, Tatum told reporters: "I'm still, like, in disbelief. That s*** was crazy.

    "That felt like the longest 10 seconds ever waiting for confirmation if he made it or not."

    White told TNT: "It had to be won. Whatever it takes, our backs against our wall, it just had to be won.

    "We're a resilient group. We pick each other up, we bond for each other.

    "The job isn't done yet, we've got a tough one Game 7, we've got to find a way to get one more win."

    White had tears sparkling in his eyes, but explained: "I'm just happy. So far, so good."

    It is just the second time in league history that a player has hit a buzzer-beater when his team was down and facing elimination, after Michael Jordan's legendary "The Shot", way back in 1989.

    "Derrick White, like a flash of lightning, just came out of nowhere and saved the day, man," team-mate Jaylen Brown added. "An incredible play."

    The Heat can only lick their wounds as they head to Boston for Monday's winner-takes-all matchup.

    Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said: "It's a seven-game series. There's nothing better than Game 7s.

    "I don't know how we're going to get this done, but we're going to go out there and get it done, and that's what the next 48 hours is about.

    "There's been nothing easy about this season for our group, and so we just have to do it the hard way."

    Jimmy Butler did his best for Miami, with 24 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.

    "We've got to go on the road and do something special, but we've got a special group," Butler said.

  • 'Bunny' Shaw is Manchester City Women's Player of the Season, misses out on WSL Golden Boot 'Bunny' Shaw is Manchester City Women's Player of the Season, misses out on WSL Golden Boot

    Reggae Girlz captain, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw has won the award for Manchester City Women’s Player of the Season, having come out on top in a fan vote.

    Shaw, in her second season for Manchester City Women,  scored 31 goals in all competitions, surpassing the record for the most goals by a Women’s player across a single season. She also claimed the WSL Player of the Month awards in November and March and received the Goal of the Season prize for her strike against Arsenal in April 2023.

    Shaw, who scored twice in Manchester City Women's 3-2 win over Everton on Saturday's final day of the season, did miss out on the Women’s Super League Golden Boot having bagged 20 league goals, two shy of Aston Villa’s Rachel Daley’s 22. Daley scored in Aston Villa's 2-0 win over Arsenal.

    Manchester City Women finished fourth in the WSL on 47 points behind winners Chelsea Women who amassed 58 points from their 22 games. Manchester United Women finished second with 56 points. Arsenal Women were third on 47 points, the same as Manchester City Women, who lost their first two games of the season before going on a 16-game unbeaten run.

    However, the Cityzens lost three of their last six games and fell out of the running for the title. They finished with a record of 15 wins, two draws and five losses.

© 2023 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.