Southampton are back in action this weekend as they travel to Watford in the Premier League.
THE MATCH
Watford vs Saints
Premier League
Vicarage Road
Saturday 30th October, 3pm BST
THE OFFICIALS
Referee: Peter Bankes
Assistants: Peter Kirkup, James Mainwaring
Fourth official: Keith Stroud
VAR: Graham Scott
Assistant VAR: Adam Nunn
WHICH KIT WILL SAINTS BE WEARING?
Saints will be wearing their red and black home kit on Saturday.
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
The hosts claimed an impressive victory last weekend over Everton at Goodison Park.
Trailing 2-1 in the 77th minute, goals from Juraj Kucka and Emmanuel Dennis as well as a brace from Joshua King saw Watford come back to claim a 5-2 win on the road.
Meanwhile, Saints suffered a narrow defeat on penalties to Chelsea in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
Saints will be looking to claim just first away victory of the Premier League season on Saturday, after drawing 2-2 with Burnley at St Mary’s last Saturday.
TEAM NEWS
Watford will be without Emmanuel Dennis at Vicarage Road as he serves a one-game suspension after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season against Everton.
Francisco Sierralta, Christan Kabasele and Peter Etbo will all miss out through injury.
Kiko Femenia is still in doubt for the hosts, but Danny Rose is likely to return to action for Claudio Ranieri’s side.
Ralph Hasenhüttl has confirmed that Armando Broja will be missing in action on Saturday as he recovers from an ankle injury.
James Ward-Prowse is available for selection after serving his three-game suspension, while Jack Stephens remains on the sidelines.
THE MANAGERS
Claudio Ranieri: "I have been to watch Chelsea against Southampton in the Carabao Cup and I saw a good, well organised team. They made a lot of changes, but played so well and I think it will be a dangerous, dangerous match on Saturday.
“[Hasenhüttl's] doing a very, very good job, his team play as a squad, they move all together and they know what they have to do, not only the first XI, also the team that played against Chelsea, it was unbelievable."
Ralph Hasenhüttl: "You never know your opponent, everybody has quality which they [Watford] showed last weekend at Everton.
“The first game against Liverpool wasn't so good but it's normal when you have a new manager you need time and now they seem to have turned around.”
ONES TO WATCH
Josh King: Netting a hat-trick last week at Everton, Josh King is looking to score in back-to-back Premier League games for the first time since January 2019.
Tino Livramento: The 18-year-old defender has started each of Saints’ first nine Premier League games this season, since the turn of the millennium, the only two 18-year-olds to start the first 10 matches of a Premier League season are Micah Richards in 2006-07 for Manchester City and Phil Jones in 2010-11 for Blackburn Rovers.
Watford
Goals:
Ismaila Sarr 4
Dennis, King 3
Ashley Fletcher 2
Assists:
Emmanuel Dennis 3
King, Hernández 2
Southampton:
Goals:
Elyounoussi, Broja 4
James Ward-Prowse 2
Assists:
Nathan Redmond 3
Elyounoussi, Ward-Prowse 2
HEAD TO HEAD
Played: 85
Watford: 26
Draws: 22
Saints: 37
LAST FIVE MEETINGS
June 2020: Watford 1-3 Saints (Ings, Ward-Prowse)
November 2019: Saints 2-1 Watford (Ings, Ward-Prowse)
January 2018: Saints 1-0 Watford (Stephens)
September 2017: Saints 0-2 Watford
March 2017: Watford 3-4 Saints (Tadic, Redmond, Gabbiadini)
DID YOU KNOW?
- Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse has scored more Premier League goals against Watford than any other side (four), netting a direct free-kick against them in both meetings in 2019-20.
- Southampton haven’t lost an away league match against Watford since September 2007 in the Championship (W3 D4 since), beating them 3-1 in their last such visit in June 2020.
- Watford have won just one of their last 13 league meetings with Southampton (D6 L6), beating them 2-0 at St Mary’s in September 2017.
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