Southampton return to Premier League action on Monday following the international break as they host South Coast neighbours Brighton and Hove Albion at St Mary’s.
The Saints earned their first victory of the season prior to the break thanks to a comfortable 2-0 win at Crystal Palace to ease some early relegation fears.
Both sides have collected four points from their opening four encounters, although, all of the visitors’ points have come in front of their supporters and they have largely struggled on the road.
Saints are unbeaten in their last three visits from Brighton, with their last defeat coming back in 2009 when the pair were in League One.
The hosts have had some players away on international duty, but the bulk of the squad have been working at Staplewood in preparation for the visit of the Seagulls while also being afforded some days’ rest.
Both sides met just a couple of weeks ago when the Saints claimed a 1-0 win at the Amex Stadium in the Carabao Cup thanks to a late Charlie Austin header.
The home form of Mark Hughes’ side is something of a concern after Saints failed to win either of their opening two games in front of their faithful. Southampton won just four league matches at St Mary’s last season.
In last season’s respective fixture, the teams played out a 1-1 draw with Glenn Murray scoring Brighton’s goal before Jack Stephens netted for Saints in the second half.
In terms of team news, Shane Long (ankle) and Charlie Austin (thigh) haven’t trained all week, but Hughes is confident that the pair will be able to train in the build-up to the match and make themselves available for Monday.
As for the Seagulls, Pascal Gross has been nursing an ankle injury but is expected to be fit for Monday night while Bruno (thigh) and Jose Izquierdo (knee) will both face late fitness tests to discover their chances of participation in the match.
Southampton manager Hughes is looking for his side to take the opportunity to claim back-to-back wins for the first time since the 2016/17 season and is confident that Saints can do exactly that:
We’re looking forward to Monday. It’s been quite some time since we’ve had back-to-back wins in the Premier League. A home game gives us the best opportunity to rectify that, and hopefully push into the top half of the table, with a view to staying there. It’ll be a good atmosphere under the lights.
Our home form hasn’t been good enough, but this is a big opportunity for us. We mustn’t allow it to pass us by.
I feel that it will be another close encounter between two evenly-matched sides on Monday night, but feel that the Saints will just have enough to see off Chris Hughton’s Brighton.
I think that the Saints will win this 2-1 on Monday evening.
