Southampton v Leicester: Saints to maintain impressive home record

If Leicester City’s winless away streak in the Premier League is to end soon, it’s unlikely to be this weekend, as they travel to St Mary’s without three of their key men, and face the daunting task of beating a Southampton side with an excellent home record.

Like the Foxes, Claude Puel’s men have endured a difficult time on the road this season – but at home, it’s a far different story. The south coast club have chalked up 10 wins and four draws in their 17 home games, beating the likes of Everton and Liverpool along the way.

By contrast, Leicester have taken just three points from 10 games on the road in this Prem campaign, scoring just eight goals in total on their travels.

And that record looks unlikely to improve at St Mary’s, with three of the Foxes’ key men – Riyad Mahrez, Islam Slimani and Daniel Amartey all unavailable due to AFCON duty. Between them, that trio have scored five of Leicester’s last 12 league goals.

Saints would likely prove too tough to break down on their own patch even without that setback, having won three of their last five home games to nil. But with Leicester’s missing trio, the 13/8 for the hosts to win to nil here looks too good to turn down.

Likewise, a 1-0 Southampton win at 9/2. They’ve already won by that scoreline six times at St Mary’s this season, so a repeat of that result looks generously priced.

Puel’s side have struggled for a good source of goals up front this term, but one man who’s making quite the impact of late is defensive powerhouse Virgil van Dijk, who’s scored in three of the Saints’ last nine games.

He’s 9/2 to score anytime here, while the 14/1 for him to be score first for the third time this season could prove an inspired selection.

But whoever gets the crucial goal for Southampton, we reckon they’ll be up and running before the break. Of Leicester’s 13 losses (and counting) this season, they’ve been behind at half-time in nine of them. So it could be well worth backing Southampton to lead at the interval and win at odds of 15/8.

In the match betting, Saints are 5/6 favourites, with the visitors 4/1 for victory and a share of the spoils priced at 5/2.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing