Arnautovic must perform if Stoke are to breach Southmapton's defensive brilliance
Southampton have been very impressive this season
After the distractions of the Capital One Cup in midweek, it’s back to league business for Stoke as they host high-flying Southampton.
The Saints weren’t involved as their tie with Sunderland was rescheduled, so had a nice week’s rest as Stoke needed extra-time and penalties to overcome ten-man Birmingham in their thrilling 4-4 draw at St Andrews.
Team News
Stoke City
Stoke have virtually a full squad to pick from, with only Robert Huth likely to miss out, so Mark Hughes will need to see who has recovered best from 120 minutes of football on Tuesday.
After impressing in the League Cup tie, Oussama Assaidi has strengthened his claim for a first team place after missing out completely in the trip to Old Trafford, as Stoke look to improve their dismal goal-scoring form in the league.
Southampton
Southampton look set to still be missing record signing Pablo/Dani Osvaldo, so Rickie Lambert will expect to keep his place in the side after impressing against Fulham last weekend.
Steven Davis also faces a late fitness test after picking up a knock, so is unlikely to be risked against the physicality of Stoke.
Recent form
Stoke are now six games and two months without a victory in the Premier League, with their win at West Ham having come all the way back at the end of August.
Struggling to put away a struggling Championship side who played an entire half (plus extra time) with ten men will hardly be much of a boost to confidence either, but at least they have now scored six times in their last two matches, having drawn blanks in four of their previous five.
Coincidentally, Southampton’s last defeat came on the same day as Stoke’s last win, as they’ve won four and drawn two of their last six, conceding just the one goal (to Manchester United) on the way to a place in the top five.
Players to watch:
Stoke City – Marko Arnautovic
With just six goals scored in nine league games so far, the pressure is on the Stoke strikers to start finding their shooting boots if they are to breach Southampton’s incredible defence.
Arnautovic now has two goals in his past two games after scoring at Manchester United and Birmingham and will hope this develops into a purple patch for him.
He will however need to improve on a shooting accuracy of just 33% and the number of chances he creates for others, having laid off just four opportunities for his colleagues since arriving from Werder Bremen on transfer deadline day.
Southampton – Adam Lallana
Stoke will play a hefty defensive game at the Britannia, so the guile of their creative midfielders could well be key to picking the lock of the hosts resistance.
Lallana will hope to build on his burgeoning reputation by increasing on the 16 chances he has created for his team-mates so far, a total only bettered by James Ward-Prowse in the Saints’ squad.
He has completed 14 take-ons this season as well and recorded a 60% shooting accuracy, so his nimble footwork could lead to him adding to the two goals he’s scored this season.
Prediction
A betting colleague of mine has always said to go against the run of form and with both sides enduring opposite fortunes of late, I’m tempted to stick my neck out and say that Stoke will upset the Southampton apple-cart on Saturday.
It won’t be pretty, it’s unlikely to be goals galore, but I’ll plump for a 1-0 win to the Potters.