Newcastle vs. Southampton
Venue: St. James’ Park
Kick off: 4PM
Southampton will look to put their 9-0 humiliation at the hands of Manchester United swiftly behind them when they make the long trip up to St James’ Park to face Newcastle United this afternoon.
For the second time in as many seasons, the Saints found themselves on the wrong end of the Premier League’s biggest-ever scoreline, but this afternoon they take on a Newcastle side in even worse form.
What had been shaping up to be a promising season for Southampton is quickly beginning to turn sour, with a sharp downturn in form seeing the Saints drop to 12th place in the Premier League.
It is difficult to imagine what else could have gone wrong for them on Tuesday night as a merciless Manchester United put Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side to the sword after 19-year-old debutant Alexandre Jankewitz was shown a straight red card after less than two minutes for a challenge which even his own manager admitted was “stupid”.
The Saints went on to finish the game having conceded as many goals as they had men on the field courtesy of Jan Bednarek’s more controversial dismissal, while a couple of very debatable VAR calls went against Southampton to add to their misery.
The nature of the collapse seemed to knock the stuffing out of Hasenhuttl, who has now found himself on the end of the biggest defeat in Premier League history on two of the three occasions that scoreline has happened, having also lost 9-0 at home to Leicester City last season.
Tuesday’s ignominy was Southampton’s biggest ever away defeat and made it four league losses in a row for the first time in Hasenhuttl’s managerial career.
Southampton as a team are now in danger of losing five consecutive league games for the first time since September 1998.
There are some glimmers of hope if Southampton look hard enough, though; a 9-0 defeat will always raise questions over a team’s character, but that is a test the Saints have already overcome with flying colours once before, following the Leicester debacle last season.
Southampton were also in a much worse position – both in terms of the league table and as a club – when they were obliterated by Leicester on that occasion, so they will be building their recovery on much sturdier foundations this time around.
It did take them a few more weeks after the Leicester defeat to really turn things around, though, and they will be hoping that is not the case against a Newcastle side also in poor form.
While Southampton have only won one of their last nine league games, Newcastle have only won one of their last 13 across all competitions and are without a home win since December 12, losing each of their last three.
The most recent of those saw them surrender an early lead to lose against Crystal Palace on Tuesday night, undoing much of the good work they had achieved in beating Everton at Goodison Park last weekend.
Manager Steve Bruce was still content with his side’s performance despite the defeat to Palace and insists that the Magpies are now back on the right track.
However, they have already lost six Premier League games in 2021 – at least two more than any other club – while Brighton & Hove Albion’s improving form has now seen them slip down to 16th in the table.
A comfortable eight-point cushion still separates them from the relegation zone and Bruce will be confident of picking up enough points over the rest of the campaign to keep the bottom three at arm’s length, but if the current form continues then his own personal survival hopes in the job may evaporate before Newcastle’s survival hopes as a team do.
There are reasons to be confident this afternoon, though, not least given their record against Southampton.
The Magpies have won 11 and lost just one of their last 15 home top-flight meetings with Southampton, including victories in each of the last three.
Indeed, another victory on Saturday would mean that Southampton join Aston Villa and Everton as the teams against whom Newcastle have won the most home Premier League games, although the Saints did win the reverse fixture in November and could do the double over the Magpies for only the third time in the Premier League era.
Newcastle United possible XI: Darlow, Manquillo, Clark, Schar, Lewis, Willock, Shelvey, Hayden, Almiron, Wilson, Saint-Maximin
Southampton possible XI: McCarthy, Ramsay, Bednarek, Stephens, Bertrand, Djenepo, Ward-Prowse, Minamino, Armstrong, Redmond, Ings.