Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
This game is about as mid-table as you can get as 12h play host to 11th at St Mary’s this Afternoon. Claude Puel’s Southampton play host to Slaven Bilic’s West Ham with both managers looking to bounce back from midweek defeats.
For Southampton it was somewhat of an unexpected defeat as they lost to a resurgent Swansea at The Liberty Stadium. Goals from Alfie Mawson and Gylfi Sigurdsson meant it was successive wins for The Swans as Claude Puel’s men find themselves out of the top half of the table.
Southampton have been accused of lacking firepower and it is a situation that they have now hoped to have resolved with the signing of Manolo Gabbiadini on the final day of the January transfer window. The Italian international has been courted by many English clubs but it’s Southampton who won the race to earn his services.
The former Napoli man will be set to make his debut later Today and will be licking his lips at going up against a West Ham defence that was looking particularly leaky on Wednesday as Manchester City once again ran riot at The London Stadium.
Pep Guardiola’s men ran out 5-0 winners in The F.A. Cup 3rd Round last month and they added to that with a 4-0 win over The Hammers in midweek. A hammering defeat which came off the back of successive wins since the Dimitri Payet transfer saga.
Payet has now returned to former club Marseille and there is also the interesting sub-plot of a former Saint returning to the South Coast this Afternoon. That’s because former club captain Jose Fonte will be facing off against his former teammates after making the move to West Ham.
That saw the 33 year old move to East London for £8m in somewhat slightly acrimonious circumstances. Fonte refused to sign a new contract and once that was made clear it was pretty apparent that his time at St Mary’s was set to come to and end.
Perhaps a move to West Ham was not the destination he had in mind especially after reported Summer interest from Jose Mourinho but the move is made and it will be interesting to see what reaction Fonte will receive from the home fans on his return.
Obviously the manner in which he left will have left a sour taste but Southampton fans will be quick to forget that he led the club from League One to the Premier League and that has to be worth some level of gratitude no matter your opinion on the transfer.
Fonte may be returning but once again Southampton are set to be without Virgil Van Dijk because of injury so expect the centre back pairing that won at Anfield in the EFL Cup recently to be tasked with keeping the likes of Andy Carroll quiet this Afternoon.
Who will come out of this the better. Well with their mid table positions and current league form then it would probably point to a draw, but after the heavy defeat that West Ham suffered on Wednesday I think confidence will be slightly higher in the Southampton camp. Therefore I’m going with a home win.
