Southampton vs Brentford – 15/03/2023
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Southampton and Brentford are set to meet for the second time in five weeks with St. Mary’s opening its doors on Wednesday night with the Saints looking to get out of the relegation zone with all three points just as the Bees aim for the top eight.
Brentford are currently sitting behind Fulham in eighth by only one point, although this is a game in hand they are set to play over them for which they will move above the Cottagers if they can collect all three points.
Thomas Frank’s men also have an extra game to play over Liverpool in sixth, however, they are four points behind the Reds, although a win here could be Brentford’s biggest attempt to get into the European spots so far this season.
The major concern for the Bees heading into this one is how their six-game unbeaten run has now come to an end. Worse yet, the club lost to another team fighting relegation, as Everton defeated them 1-0 at Goodison Park for what was their first loss in two months.
On the other hand, during that unbeaten run, Brentford beat Southampton with ease in a 3-0 victory back in London.
Ben Mee scored a header that day before Bryan Mbeumo also scored in the first half, as Mathias Jensen added the third 10 minutes from time.
As for Southampton, they are bottom of the Premier League once again with just 22 points on the board.
They are, however, trailing West Ham United and Leicester City in 17th and 16th, respectively, by only two points. A win here would bring them out of the bottom three.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles will face a late fitness test for this game, but Valentino Livramento and Juan Larios are still out for a few more weeks. Brentford are relatively fine in the physio room, but Thomas Strakosha and Keane Lewis-Potter are both ruled out into April.
Southampton’s dreadful form at home this season makes it incredibly tough to back them to win this season at St. Mary’s. Indeed, they may have beaten Manchester City at home in the EFL Cup 2-0, but ever since then, they’ve failed to win two games on the spin on home soil and slumped back to the foot of the table in the league.
Forebet predicts a win for Brentford against them one more and for the game to see under 2.5 goals
