Stoke City vs. Southampton
Venue: Britannia Stadium
Kick off: 4pm
It’s eighth versus ninth at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday (today) as Stoke City take on Southampton in the Premier League.
The Potters are really on the up of late, while the Saints are aiming for a first win in four.
After losing five games in a row in all competitions, Stoke have soared back up the table with three wins and a draw in their last four matches.
That one draw was last weekend, but it was still an impressive one as the Potters held Chelsea at Stamford Bridge – a ground they had always lost at in recent years – thanks to Mame Biram Diouf’s late header.
The club is still trying to agree a new deal with winger Marko Arnautovic, one of the club’s star performers this season.
Incredibly, without his nine Premier League goals this season, Stoke would be 12 points worse off.
The Austrian has also scored six and assisted one more goal in his last nine Premier League appearances at the Britannia Stadium.
As a team at home, Stoke have lost just one of their last six Premier League games at the Britannia Stadium.
While Stoke come into this match full of confidence, Southampton have slumped a bit of late after five wins and six straight clean sheets between January 13 and February 13.
Although the club’s losing streak was ended last week, Ronald Koeman will still be disappointed that his side needed an injury-time leveller from Virgil van Dijk against relegation-threatened Sunderland after the Saints’ other centre-back, Jose Fonte, was sent off against the Black Cats.
Today’s match sees the top two challengers for Joe Hart’s number-one jersey at Euro 2016 do battle. Jack Butland has been a standout player all season, but of goalkeepers to have played more than once in the Premier League this season, Fraser Forster, who was named February’s Player of the Month today, has the best saves-to-shots ratio.
Stoke possible starting lineup: Butland, Cameron, Shawcross, Wollscheid, Pieters, Whelan, Imbula, Shaqiri, Afellay, Arnautovic, Diouf.
Southampton possible starting lineup: Forster, Cedric, Yoshida, Van Dijk, Bertrand, Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Tadic, Davis, Mane, Long.