Football Results

This weekend the English Premier League plays its 34th round and in the first match 18th-placed Southampton meets 5th-positoined Chelsea, which has 29 points more at the moment. However, still reigning champion of England plays quite weakly recently and the match is an ideal chance for the Saints to win so much needed points for the survival race. Let’s add that their match played at the Stamford Bridge last autumn had ended as the Saints victory 1-0.

Southampton

Since it was fourth consecutive defeat of Southampton in matches with Chelsea it is quite clear that the home team has plenty of motives to fight back on Saturday. On top of it, in just eight days they will meet Chelsea at the Wembley stadium in London in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, and it would be very important for the Saints to improve their self-confidence ahead of the match, while on top of it their situation in the league is not very good lately.

After the latest six-game winless streak of four losses and two draws they moved down to the 18th place in the table and have just one point more than next-to-last Stoke, while at the same time their backlog behind teams that occupy from 15 to 17 places are not big. Right because of that we expect far more aggressive tactic from team led by manager Hughes against Chelsea. Out of action for the match are injured midfielders Lemina and Davis, and forward Long, while stopper Stephens is suspended due to red card.

Probable lineups Southampton: McCarthy – Soares, Hoedt, Yoshida, Bertrand – Romeu, Hojbjerg – Tadic, Ward-Prowse, Redmond – Austin

Chelsea

When we talk about still reigning champions of England we have said in the introduction that the atmosphere in the locker room is pretty gloomy given that out of last league matches they lost even three, drew one and won just one match, which is why they have big 10 points fewer at the moment than 4th-placed Tottenham. It means that we are not going to watch the Blues in the Champions League after a long time, which is why departure of manager Conte is expected after the season ends.

True, he still has chance to leave the Stamford Bridge with a title, as Chelsea reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup where will face no other team than Southampton. Therefore, it is going to be very interesting how their league match will finish. On top of it, the home team needs points far more as Southampton struggles to survive, while on the other hand the Blues can barely wait the end of season. Let’s add that still out of action are injured defenders Zappacosta and Luiz, and midfielder Barkley.

Probable lineups Chelsea: Courtois – Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger – Moses, Kante, Fabregas, Alonso – Willian, Hazard – Morata

Verdict:

We have stressed in our analysis that the home team needs points more as it struggles to survive, while on the other hand priority for the Blues is the FA Cup.

Pick:  Asian handicap +1 Southampton 1.56 - 56/100 @1XBet