Southampton can close gap on Top Six with win against Tottenham
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When Southampton announced that they’d be without Charlie Austin for up to four months through injury, it’s fair to say fans and pundits feared the worst for their chances of breaking into the Top Six again.
But so far, things have gone just fine for Claude Puel’s men, picking up seven points from their last three games.
They may not be scoring many goals (only Sunderland and Hull City have scored fewer), but they’re getting the job done.
However, they face their toughest test yet without their star striker, as Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur visit St Mary’s.
And it’s the visitors who head into this one as slight favourites at 8/5, while the Saints are 9/5 to grab all three points.
It’s just over a year to the day since Harry Kane and Dele Alli found the net in a 2-0 win in this fixture, and 11/1 says we see a repeat of that scoreline, with 9/2 on offer for the former to open the scoring again.
But it’s the Saints who ran out victorious the last time these two sides met, winning 2-1 at White Hart Lane.
They came from behind on that day, with an unlikely Steven Davis brace, and 14/1 says they come from behind to win again.
As recent head-to-heads go, it’ll come as no surprise to learn than Spurs have the upper hand over their opponents, with six wins to Southampton’s one in their last eight meetings.
But the home side know that they can close the gap between themselves and Manchester United in sixth place to just six points, so don’t rule out a second successive win for the south-coast outfit against Spurs.
Both sides will be raring to go in this one, having gone 10 days without taking to the field. And that makes for a perfect post-Christmas cracker.
Click here for a full list of Southampton v Tottenham odds.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
