Southampton, after a season battling relegation, will be looking for a smoother 2018/19 campaign and with a home tie against Burnley first up on their fixture list, they have the perfect chance to get three points on the board.
With the Clarets competing in Europa League qualifiers, Saints will look to take advantage of any tiredness in the Clarets’ squad and make amends for the 1-0 loss that they suffered at the hands of Sean Dyche’s side at St Mary’s last season.
Mark Hughes, who did well to keep Southampton in the Premier League last season, will now get a full summer of pre-season action to prepare his players and he’ll hope to see the fruits of his labour on August 12th.
As the Premier League betting odds show, despite finishing 10 places behind Burnley in the table last season, Southampton will go into this game as favourites with many observers believing that the Clarets’ European excursions, added to the fact that they’ve done very little transfer business so far this summer, will result in a poor season for Dyche’s side.
Mark Hughes, who has brought in Stuart Armstrong, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Angus Gunn and Jannik Vestergaard, will be hoping to add to those Burnley worries by inflicting an early defeat upon them.
However, as Saints fans found out last year, there are no easy games in the Premier League and whilst Burnley may lack the type of superstar talent that the likes of the league’s top sides possess, they are always extremely well organised and very difficult to beat.
It’s against those type of sides where Hughes will hope Elyounoussi, brought in from Basel, will weave some magic to help break down packed defences. Saints were pretty terrible in front of goal last season and fans will hope so see signs on improvement when Burnley travel to Southampton.
