After a battling display at the Etihad Stadium which saw Southampton come away with a valuable point, their attention now turns to the EFL Cup with the visit of Sunderland upon us.
This will be the second time already this season that Sunderland will be making the long trip down from Tyneside to the south coast and they will be making the trip off the back of a last-gasp 1-0 defeat at West Ham on Saturday. The defeat means that Sunderland are still the only team in England’s top four divisions yet to taste victory this season as they sit bottom of the Premier League with only two points from their opening nine games.
Southampton, however, go into the game in fine form and are unbeaten in their last five in the league, with their only defeats in this seasons Premier League campaign being away at Arsenal and Manchester United respectively.
In terms of team news, it is thought that Claude Puel will make several changes from the side that drew at Manchester City, with Harrison Reed, Jake Hesketh and Jack Stephens all likely to feature, as well as Sam McQueen, who will continue at left-back. Alex McCarthy is also likely to come in for Fraser Forster in goal.
As for the visitors, David Moyes is likely to make changes ahead of the visit to Saints, with the likelihood of him resting some of his senior players, however, Jermain Defoe could be involved as well as goalkeeper Mika, who would be making his debut after joining the club on deadline day from Portuguese outfit Boavista.
I now take a look back at the last four meetings between the two sides (unfortunately, the 8-0 is outside the last four).
