Stoke City v Southampton Betting Tips

Wednesday sees a battle between the red and white striped teams of Stoke and Southampton.

After a dreadful start to the season, just like last year, Stoke have improved dramatically and now find themselves just one point outside of the top ten. However, that revival has dampened a bit in the last few games with two losses in their last four matches.

The Potters have traditionally been a well-drilled team and that has obviously carried on into this season with just six goals conceded in their last eight matches with three of those goals coming against title-challengers Arsenal.

When you look at the ‘Goals For’ column on the Premier League table and see that Mark Hughes’s team have found the back of the net just 17 times, you would think they were poor in the final third. However, they have scored in 10 of their last 11 matches so things are looking pretty good.

Stoke have always prided themselves on their home form at the Britannia Stadium (which is considered one of the toughest places to go in the league) and it has been no different this year. Despite losing their first two matches at home, things have picked up and they’ve won three of the last five in Stoke. The Potters will certainly feel confident going into this match against tenth place Southampton.

The Saints went on a decent run a few weeks back, but their form has now tailed off somewhat with no consecutive wins in the league since mid-September.

Defensively, Southampton are pretty good and have a knack for keeping clean sheets and limiting the opposition to few opportunities. Unfortunately, despite having a good list of names in the attacking positions, Claude Puel’s side have trouble finding the net having scored just 14 in 15 games – the joint worst in the entire division. If Southampton concede one, then the most they can really hope for is a draw.

Home form has certainly been the backbone to Southampton’s in recent times with just two losses at St. Mary’s in 2016 (both against Chelsea). However, going away from home is another matter for them with just one win all season and recently suffering two back-to-back defeats on the road. Going to the notoriously difficult Britannia Stadium with that kind of record can spell bad things.

Southampton have been made the favourites for this game but, considering their form on their travels and Stoke’s record at home, I do not understand why.

I think we will see a fairly low scoring game with no more than three goals. At 11/10, ‘2-3 Total Goals’ looks a good way to play this one. Three of Stoke’s last five at home have seen two goals hit the net, while four of Southampton’s lats five on the road have seen two or three goals hit the net. As alluded to above, both teams are capable going forward, but don’t score a tremendous amount, so, while goals are fancied, an overly high-scoring encounter doesn’t look likely. On this note, a score-line of 1-1 stands out and certainly makes for a decent secondary bet here.

See Wednesday’s Championship tips here.