Neither Southampton nor Tottenham had imagined the start of the season this way. Both teams suffered a 1-0 defeat in the Premier League at the start. If the Saints were then eliminated from second division Brentford in the EFL Cup, the Spurs got away with a dark blue eye in the Europa League.
Against the Bulgarian underdog Lokomotive Plovdiv, the Lilywhites were 1-0 down until the 80th minute of the game, before Kane and Nbombélé turned the game around. Nevertheless, at Southampton against Tottenham, the odds of the bookmakers turn towards the Londoners, as the odds comparison of the betting base shows.
At Southampton against Tottenham, the prognosis must be that the Saints were still without a goal of their own in both competitive games, while the Spurs only met against a Bulgarian opponent who only played ninth after two relays. The shaky start to the season for both teams can therefore be attributed to the sticking game forward.
Southampton:
In the 2019/20 season, Ralph Hasenhüttl led Southampton FC up to eleventh place in the table. This enabled them to get 13 points more than the year before, which ultimately meant that the Saints were a lot closer to qualifying for a European competition than the relegation zone.
Accordingly, those responsible stuck to their Austrian coach, who, however, had to let his playmaker go in the form of Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg, who ended up with today’s guest Tottenham Hotspur.
The fact that the Dane, who once started his career at Bayern Munich, was very important for the build-up game of the team from the English south coast, is also shown by the fact that Southampton lacked creativity in the midfield control center in the previous two season games.
So it’s no wonder that the sports directorate is now exploring the transfer market again and is intensifying the search for a Höjbjerg successor. It is clear, however, that another solution must be found for the home game against the Londoners.
There has not been a single defeat in the last three home games in the Premier League. Both home games against Spurs under the leadership of Ralph Hasenhüttl were even won by just one goal.
In view of the false start with two defeats and still no own goal, it would be presumptuous to place the tip on the Saints’ point win at Southampton against Tottenham. Rather, we speculate that there will continue to be offensive jamming on both sides and that St. Mary’s Stadium will see a low-goal match with a maximum of two hits.
Tottenham:
Tottenham Hotspur – runner-up in the summer of 2017 with only four defeats this season and in the final of the UEFA Champions League in summer 2019 – experienced quite a crash last year.
With a lot of effort and a good deal of luck, the Spurs were able to push themselves to sixth place in a desolate season on the last day of the game in order to be able to compete at least in the qualifying round for the Europa League. And here again would almost have been the end of the line in the first game.
Against the blatant outsider Lokomotive Plovdiv, Lilywhites who were completely next to them ran after the 0-1 deficit for a long time before the Bulgarians weakened themselves with two dismissals and thus gave the Londoners the opportunity to actually turn the game around.
The game in Bulgaria on Thursday evening not only cost a lot of strength, but should not have boosted that self-confidence after the 0-1 opening home defeat against Everton FC anyway. One gets the impression that something fundamental is wrong with the highly decorated team of José Mourinho.
However, “The Special One” now has the chance to score six points against the Saints and then against Newcastle United, while also qualifying for the group stage of the Europa League and thus setting the course for success again early on. It is undisputed that the squad has the potential for this. The only question is how long will it take to be exhausted again?
