Southampton manager Mark Hughes believes it could be a ‘good time’ to face Everton following a summer of transition at Goodison Park.
Both sides opened their respective campaigns with draws, with Saints being held 0-0 by Burnley while Everton drew 2-2 with Premier League new boys Wolves.
The two teams will be looking to earn their first win of the season this weekend to make a positive start to the new campaign, which is set to be as competitive as ever.
The away side have got a very poor record at Goodison, failing to win there for 20 years and came close to ending this run at the back-end of last season, only to concede to a late Tom Davies deflected strike as the match ended 1-1.
Everton spent big in the transfer window following the appointment of Marco Silva as their new manager, the most high profile signing of which was the addition of Richarlison from Watford for a fee of around £40million.
Goodison is always a really tough place to go for visiting sides and Hughes’ team will really need to be at their best if they are to take a positive result out of the contest.
Southampton’s new signing Danny Ings will be looking to impress this weekend after making a loan move from Everton’s city rivals Liverpool on deadline day.
The two sides really struggled for goals last season and it’s likely to be a very tight match between the two, having similarly matched squads.
In terms of team news, the Toffees remain without James McCarthy, Yerry Mina and André Gomes for the clash with all three lacking match sharpness, but Kurt Zouma could be given his debut following the sending off of Phil Jagielka last weekend.
Richarlison is also being assessed, but is expected to be fit for the fixture after limping off with a calf injury at Wolves last weekend.
As for the Saints, Stuart Armstrong is set to be available for them after also coming off in their opener, but fellow new signing Mohamed Elyounoussi is set to miss the clash due to a tight thigh.
The Saints boss has indicated that now may be the best time to play Saturday’s opponents, saying in his pre-match press conference, as quoted by ITV:
It may be that now is the best time to play them given the changes they have undertaken and maybe mid-season they will be better acquainted with the guys they brought in.
But games at Goodison [Park] are always difficult for opposition teams.
I expect it to be a thoroughly tight encounter between two evenly match sides, but I feel that the home advantage could have an impact in this one and I feel that the Toffees will just nick it 2-1.
