After beating Liverpool in the League Cup semi-final, Southampton, as we predicted, have had a downturn and it seems the players’ minds are already on that Wembley final. You could argue that they’ve lost the motivation to really fight in the Premier League as they know that they are likely to finish mid-table this season anyway. Since reaching the EFL Cup final, The Saints have lost all of their three matches, conceding 10 goals in the process.
On the other hand, Sunderland have started to come to life in recent weeks. Firstly, they secured a point against high-flying Spurs, then they pulled off a shock 4-0 victory at Crystal Palace last time out thanks to an astonishing first half display.
However, if you look at the last four matches by David Moyes’s team, you will notice that they did not score in three of them – something that could be repeated in this match against Southampton. The Saints really need a result here, but what they really need is to avoid defeat. We could see the visitors come into this fixture and aim to keep things nice and tight.
It doesn’t appear likely that Sunderland will repeat their scoring exploits of last weekend, while Southampton aren’t exactly scoring a lot of goals right now. ‘Under 2.5 Goals’ looks a good bet in this one.
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