The Premier League title race comes under the microscope once again on Tuesday evening when title chasers Liverpool make the trip to Southampton to attempt to take the race to the final day of the season.
In order to do that Liverpool need to avoid defeat but when you consider Manchester City have a seven goal buffer in terms of the goal difference between the two, realistically only a win for the Reds will do. They look to have the perfect opponent in Southampton though as the Saints have little to play for.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on both the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League channels. The build-up in Hampshire begins at 7pm with the clash kicking off at 7.45pm.
Southampton
I guess whenever a season started the first aim for Southampton is always to ensure that they are playing Premier League football in the following campaign and to that extent this is a successful term because that has been assured. You just feel that under Ralph Hasenhuttl this is a club that can aim a little higher than that but they are finding sustaining a 38 match campaign quite tough at the present time, as illustrated by them winning just one of their last 10 matches.
You get the feeling that this season fizzled out for Southampton when they were beaten in the FA Cup quarter final by Manchester City. Although their Premier League survival was only mathematically secured last weekend, they had enough points to suggest they would stay up probably a couple of months ago. The only thing left for them now is to finish their home campaign on a high and go out in front of their own fans in style.
Liverpool
Whatever happens from here on in you would have to say this has been an incredible season for Liverpool. They already have two trophies and could yet add two more to that over the next couple of weeks. The one price of their success is the amount of matches they have played and it is only natural that they have started to look a little jaded in the last couple of weeks or so. However they now know there are just three matches of this season left and that might motivate them to drain every last bit of energy out of themselves.
This has to be a banana skin for Liverpool purely because of the fact they were taken to extra time in an intense cup final on a boiling hot day on Saturday and then they would have had the emotional highs of celebrating that success and then having to recover for this game. That will test any side but they have been in this position before this season and I’m sure they can draw on that experience. The positive is they go into this match undefeated in 17 Premier League matches in 2022.
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Team News
Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl is hoping to have goalkeeper Fraser Forster and midfielder Stuart Armstrong available before the end of the season but he hasn’t declared whether they will be available here.
Liverpool are expected to be without Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah for this match after they left the cup final early on Saturday with injuries. Jurgen Klopp is confident they’ll be fit for the weekend but not this game. Diogo Jota and Joel Matip could come in. Andy Robertson is a doubt.
Betting
For all that this is a potential banana skin for Liverpool I expect them to get the job done, although it might be that they don’t go covering handicaps with van Dijk missing and one or two other players likely to need a rest. I just can’t get over the fact that Southampton are the perfect opponents for them given that they’re in terrible form and are effectively just playing out the season with little to no motivation for much here.
Rather than play big handicaps or short prices on the result, I would rather side with the Liverpool attack, which is sure to be vibrant whichever front three Klopp picks. Southampton just can’t stop conceding chances at the minute. Their last six xGA tallies have been 4.66, 1.73, 2.77, 2.04, 1.12 and 3.01. That is pretty pathetic so Liverpool are going to get chances throughout this match. I expect them to want to get in front early and control the pace from there so the 19/20 on Liverpool scoring in both halves will do for me. Even when they weren’t at their best at Aston Villa last week this landed, as it did at Manchester City, Brighton and Crystal Palace in recent away games.
Tips
Back Liverpool to score in both halves for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with William Hill
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