saintsfc.co.uk has the lowdown ahead of Southampton's Barclays Premier League clash with Norwich City at Carrow Road.
Southampton will hope to start 2016 with a win as they travel to Carrow Road to take on Norwich City in the Barclays Premier League.
Ronald Koeman’s men ended 2015 with a 2-1 defeat away at West Ham United, despite dominating the first half against the Hammers.
Alex Neil’s Norwich ended the year on a high – beating beleaguered Aston Villa 2-0 at Carrow Road thanks to goals from Jonny Howson and Dieumerci Mbokani.
The win lifted the Canaries unto 15th place, three points clear of the relegation zone, while Saints head into Saturday’s match four points ahead of their opponents in 12th.
Earlier in the campaign, Saints recorded an impressive 3-0 victory over Neil’s men thanks to a first-half goal from Graziano Pellè and a double from Dušan Tadić.
Ronald Koeman has confirmed Graziano Pellè and Cédric will both be absent for Saints’ trip to Carrow Road, while Oriol Romeu will serve a one-game suspension after picking up his fifth booking of the season at the Boleyn Ground.
Norwich boss Alex Neil is likely to have a fully-fit squad available to him, with Andre Wisdom and Matt Jarvis back in contention after injury.
Nathan Redmond will be one to watch out for this weekend, with the winger leading the scoring charts for Norwich City so far this season.
The Canaries have found goals hard to come by during the campaign so far, but the winger has found the net four times in the Barclays Premier League.
The England Under-21 international found the net in the opening two games of the season – against Crystal Palace and Sunderland – before adding another in a 2-2 draw with West Ham and his fourth in a heavy defeat at Newcastle.
Redmond, a former Birmingham City man, has also grabbed two assists in the league so far this season for Alex Neil’s side.
The 21 year-old was on the scoresheet when Norwich beat Saints 1-0 in the Premier League back in 2013.
Saints have lost just one of their previous ten meetings against Norwich City in all competitions.
The Canaries prevailed the last time the two sides met at Carrow Road – Nathan Redmond scoring the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win for the hosts.
Shane Long has scored six goals in his last nine appearances against Norwich City.
Norwich have conceded just three goals in their previous five games at Carrow Road.
Southampton and Norwich City have met twice previously for the first game of a new year. The most-recent meeting came in 1994, when the Canaries won 1-0 at the Dell. The two sides also met in 1938, with Saints prevailing 3-1 in a home tie against the Norfolk-based outfit.
Tickets for the game at Carrow Road will be available on the day. Click here for more information.
You can follow all the action from Saturday's game via the club’s social media channels. We’ll have live updates on Twitter, goal updates on Facebook and a liveblog running on saintsfc.co.uk .
After the game, we’ll have reaction on youtube.com/southamptonfc, as well as saintsfc.co.uk .
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