TOTTENHAM host Southampton on Wednesday. Jack Wright (@JackWright_BSB ) is on-hand to preview the match-up.
Tottenham vs Southampton | Wednesday 21st April 2021, 18:00 | Sky Sports
What a few days it has been for these two clubs – at least Southampton’s action was pitch based as they fell short in the FA Cup Semi Final with a solitary goal defeat at the hands of Leicester as Kelechi Iheanacho’s strike booked another Wembley date for the Foxes.
As for Spurs, well they dispensed with the services of one of the games most renowned trophy winning managers some six days before a cup final, but fear not Spurs fans Daniel Levy got you onside by being the Willy Wonka of White Hart Lane by waving a shiny golden ticket to the new European Super League…oh wait..let’s just move on!
Back to the football and Southampton are on a truly awful run of league form, although 2021 started positively with a 1-0 win over the defending champions at St. Mary’s, in the 14 games since then the Saints have collected just seven points losing 11 games (W2, D1, L11), with a goal difference of –24 (F13 A37) although skewed by the 9-0 mauling at Old Trafford, still is pretty ugly reading.
Those two wins in that run came against two of the current bottom four but also included games against five of the bottom six losing the other three with the Saints last league game prior to their FA Cup engagement ending in a 3-0 embarrassment at West Brom where they were second best throughout.
The reverse fixture in September was a crazy affair featuring seven goals, all of which coming after three goals were VAR disallowed inside the opening half an hour!
We could be in for another goal fest here with Spurs home games averaging 2.87 and Southampton’s away trips an even higher 3.38 and an incredible record of goals in their recent head to heads.
Sine Southampton’s 2012 return to the top flight these two sides have met on 19 occasions, with a total of 66 goals, averaging 3.47 per game, 15 have seen both teams score, including nine of the last ten in the league and 13 have seen a combination of both teams scoring and over 2.5 goals.
With a serious lack of confidence in both of these defences being able to keep things tight, I can see that run continuing and am happy to take odds of 11/10 with William Hill.
Jose Mourinho may have been sacked for “poor performance” but the stats don’t really back up that impression as since joining the North London club, only Man City (130), Liverpool (117) and Manchester United (116) picked up more Premier League points than Spurs (95).
Even so, will we still see the infamous “new manager bounce” – for me, I still can’t help but get a whiff of player revolt and as such it would not surprise me to see Tottenham fly out of the traps here and attempt to put Southampton to the sword?
Ralph Hasenhüttl’s defence have been leaving his side a mountain to climb in recent games, having conceded at least two first-half goals in three of their last four EPL outings and there is a chance interim head coach Ryan Mason will get an immediate tune out of this Spurs side simply for not being Jose.
I would of course be much happier if the injured Harry Kane was available, but I think those with points to prove to former management could well raise their games a level or two, certainly initially and therefore I am prepared to take a chance on Spurs to score over 1.5 first half goals at odds of 21/5 with Paddy Power.
In the absence of the captain, leading scorer, top assister and all-round star man I wanted to side with his partner in crime, Son Heung-Min.
The South Korean, possibly more so than any other of his teammates will miss Kane given their telepathic understanding, but the England skippers absence will give possibly give the 28-year-old a chance to shine and certainly have a more leading role.
Son scored four goals in that aforementioned reverse fixture victory and although incredibly all were assisted by Kane there should still be plenty of creativity around him in the shape of Lucas Moura, Erik Lamela, Gareth Bale and even Dele Alli.
With Southampton being his lucky club, having scored more goals against them than any other club I am taking him to add to his tally of 10 by finding the back of the net once more at odds of 31/20 with Unibet.
Best Bets
Tottenham vs Southampton – Both Teams To Score and Over 2.5 Goals (11/10 William Hill)
Tottenham vs Southampton – Tottenham to score Over 1.5 First-Half Goals (21/5 Paddy Power)
Tottenham vs Southampton – Son Heung-Min to score (31/20 Unibet)
