Southampton v Man Utd: Saints can keep Red Devils at bay

SOUTHAMPTON entertain Manchester United in the early Premier League kick-off on Saturday. Lewis Blain (@LewisBlainSport delivers his betting analysis.

Southampton v Manchester United | Saturday 31st August 2019, 12:30 | BT Sport

Southampton host Manchester United at St Mary’s in Saturday’s early Premier League game and just one point separates the two sides, but don’t expect this one to be a thrilling encounter.

We’ll begin with the home side who have found life hard this season. It began with an embarrassing opening day defeat at Burnley, before Liverpool made it two losses from two, whilst they managed to pick up their first win of the season last weekend, although that was only because they were playing 10 men.

Brighton had a goal disallowed last weekend before Florin Andone received a red card after just 30 minutes. They still recorded more possession and the same amount of shots as the Saints despite playing the best part of an hour to a disadvantage.

Southampton are merely averaging 12.30 shots per-game, of which only 3.30 are on-target. Summer signing Che Adams is yet to get off the mark either.

Now with United, they will want to respond to their shocking defeat to Crystal Palace last weekend. Daniel James thought he had rescued a point for the Red Devils before Patrick van Aanholt won it well into stoppage time.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men are averaging more shots per-game at 14.00 but tie Southampton for those on target with 3.30. That figure is in the lower half of the Premier League. By contrast, United’s defence faces just 9.70 shots, tied third in the league. So a lacking Saints should struggle to score against their visitors.

A combination of the above makes a lack of goals seem likely in this match. To boost those odds, we’re going to add Southampton Double Chance into the equation for a couple of additional reasons.

Firstly, United will be without Anthony Martial, who has been their best player so far this season scoring twice and laying on one assist. It means Mason Greenwood could be handed a rare opportunity. They’ve also let Alexis Sanchez go to Inter Milan to link up with Romelu Lukaku, so the visitors lack options up top.

Luke Shaw looks likely to miss out too so Ashley Young will be deployed at left-back, which is surely calamity waiting to happen – Yann Valery should get lots of success on that side of the pitch.

It just seems that a low-scoring affair, which has the potential to trouble United, seems most likely and I'm happy to take the 15/8 (Bet365) available.