Hull City v Southampton Betting Tips

Two sides with incredibly contrasting seasons go head-to-head at the KCom Stadium on Sunday. Hull City had an excellent start to the campaign, but are now in serious trouble whilst Southampton have woken up from their early season slumber to dramatically improve in recent weeks.

It seems a long time ago since then caretaker manager Mike Phelan was voted Premier League Manager of the Month for August. Now in the role on a permanent basis, Phelan has endured a torrid time as Hull boss with six consecutive losses. Hull would have been heavily cut adrift had they not had that excellent run of games in August.

Unlike their early season loss to Phelan’s former club Manchester United, most of their losses have not shown any positive signs as they have looked inept going forward and wobbly at the back. However, they will consider themselves unlucky to have lost last weekend’s match away at Watford. The defence looked a lot better with centre half Michael Dawson back in the side, but unfortunately it was the former Tottenham man’s own goal which cost Hull a precious point at Vicarage Road.

After conceding 19 goals in the five matches before that loss against Watford, Hull have now seemingly remembered how to defend. Unfortunately for them, the in-form man from the first few games of the Premier League season, winger Robert Snodgrass, has now picked up an injury. Without his creativity in the side I just cannot see them scoring many goals.

Although they did do well against Watford, coming up against this excellent Southampton side is hardly a game to be highly confident about.

Southampton recovered from their loss against Chelsea at the weekend by beating European giants Inter Milan in a Europa League match on Thursday. This was no doubt the Saints’ greatest victory in a long time and will live long in the memory of their fans.

Although they were deservedly beat by in-form Chelsea last weekend, Claude Puel’s side will be confident of bouncing back and going into the sort of form which has seen them climb the table. Prior to that loss at home to the Blues, Southampton had won three of their last five matches and conceded just two goals.

Whilst the defensive spine of the Southampton team has very much been the centre of attention, they do carry an incredibly frightening attacking threat in the likes of Charlie Austin, Dusan Tadic and Nathan Redmond. This trio in particular will certainly cause trouble for Hull’s dodgy defence.

A Southampton is really the obvious bet here but, with little value on the simple ‘Away Win’ market, I have decided to go for ‘Southampton to Win to Nil’ at 17/10. As previously mentioned, Hull look awful going forward and carry pretty much no threat whatsoever whilst, although their defence may look better now that Michael Dawson has returned, I am not at all convinced they will be able to resist this strong Saints front-line.

Secondly I have gone for ‘Southampton to Win & Over 1.5 Goals’. It’s very hard not to see Southampton scoring a number of goals in this match, while a victory for the visitors look inevitable.

See more tips here.