Friday night football on the Premier League returns when Bournemouth take a short trip to the south coast to engage Southampton at the St Mary’s Stadium.
After five weeks of games, nothing separates the pair on the table, with the near-neighbours level on both points and goal difference.
Ralph Hassenhuttl has managed to turn things around after his side lost their first two games on the league. His picked up wins at Brighton and Hove Albion and Sheffield United in his last three games.
Southampton have lost just one of their last eight Premier League meetings with Bournemouth (W3 D4) and are unbeaten in all four at St Mary’s (W2 D2).
In all competitions, Bournemouth have never won away against Southampton in 15 attempts (D6 L9), failing to score in eight of those games.
Bournemouth won their only previous Premier League game played on a Friday, which was also a south coast Derby (2-1 vs Brighton in September 2017).
Southampton have lost each of their last four home league games on a Friday, though three of those were in the Championship between 2007 and 2012.
Bournemouth have scored directly from a free-kick twice in their last three Premier League games – they had done so just once in their previous 154 games in the competition.
WHEN AND WHERE?
Venue : St Mary’s
Date : Friday, September 20
Time : 20:00 (BST)
TEAM NEWS
Summer arrival Moussa Djenepo is likely to miss the game after he picked up a muscular problem during the week.
Nathan Redmond should calm fears over the Malian’s absence as he could return from injury to feature in the game.
Simon Francis and Lloyd Kelly are working their way back to fitness as Eddie Howe looks to solve his injury problems. Dan Gosling, Charlie Daniels, Adam Smith, Arnaut Groeneveld, Junior Stanislas and David Brooks are all long-term absentees.
POSSIBLE LINE-UPS
Southampton XI : Gunn; Bednarek, Yoshida, Vestergaard; Cedric, Romeu, Hojberg, Bertrand; Ward-Prowse, Adams, Armstrong.
Bournemouth XI : Ramsdale; Stacey, Cook, Ake, Rico; H Wilson, Lerma, Billing, Fraser; King, C Wilson.
PREDICTION
Southampton 1-1 Bournemouth
