Thursday 19th April 2018 Kick off 1945hrs Leicester City v Southampton Football – England – Premier League With the Premier League title now officially in the hands of Manchester City, attention now switches to the bottom end of the table and the fight for survival. At the time of writing, the situation is looking bleak for West Brom, Stoke and Southampton who all face huge fights to remain in the Premier League. The Saints are five points from safety and will travel to Leicester on Thursday evening aware they can ill afford to drop many more points in the five games that are left. For Leicester they will be looking to cement themselves in eighth spot ahead of Everton and Newcastle.
Leicester would have been disappointed to lose away to Burnley on Saturday as it virtually means they will not be able to catch the Clarets in seventh spot and will have to forego hopes of playing in Europe next term. It’s a problem that most managers in the league would like as we head towards the end of the season, when you consider how many teams are still looking over their shoulders, but considering Leicester were Premier League champions a couple of years ago, it will be frustrating nonetheless. That said, before Claude Puel took over from Craig Shakespeare in October, the Foxes actually sat in the bottom three so the Frenchman should take a fair amount of credit for turning things around and has set good foundations for the years to come, you would think. In the short term, Puel will only be concentrating on the next give games and particularly Thursday’s match with Southampton. He was sacked after only a year at the Saints and whilst he is unlikely to take much pleasure at their current situation, he will be looking to heap more misery on his former club.
Mark Hughes was not an overwhelming choice to take over as Southampton manager and with a handful of games left it’s still very much unlikely it’s going to have the desired effect and keep the club in the top flight. Saturday’s game with Chelsea virtually summed up their season having taken a two goal lead against the Blues only to lose the match 3-2 having fell to bits once the first goal went in. The attitude and desire has to be questioned considering this group of players have been assembled for large amounts of money and they should simply be well clear of relegation concerns. As it stands, it’s looking more and more likely that they will be plying their trade in the Championship next season unless they are able to stage a dramatic recovery in the games that are left. They have not lost their last four league games and have conceded three goals on each occasion – that’s why it’s going to be so hard to turn this around as conceding that number of goals on such a regular basis has essentially sapped the team of belief which was evident in the second half on Saturday. They have to find some way to stem the flow of goals against to give themselves any sort of chance.
Leicester City v Southampton Betting Tip
Every game for Southampton will essentially be a cup final between now and the end of the season in the league, and their actual cup appearance on Sunday against is probably going to be a big distraction for Hughes and his players. The Saints face Chelsea for a place in the FA Cup final this weekend and whilst that is something to look forward to, it will be pretty underwhelming should it be as the result of relegation from the Premier League. Leicester have no such worries of course and will just be looking for a strong finish to the season as Claude Puel prepares what he hopes will be his first full season in charge. Should Leicester win then he will be seen as something of a pantomime villain as it will be a hammer blow to his former club’s chances of beating the drop. The Southampton faithful may be regretting their call for a change in manager last summer as Puel was sacked despite getting the club to the League Cup final and finishing eighth in the league – they would give their right arm for that one.
Football has a straight way of coming back to bite people where it hurts and this game looks tailor made for that. Puel will feel he has scores to settle and will love nothing more than to get one over his old club, and he can do just that on Thursday.
Leicester 7/5 @ Betfair
