Match Day Thread Southampton v Aston Villa Saturday 30/1/2021 8pm Sky Sports

Saints welcome ‘The Villa’ to SMS this Saturday evening, with both teams still optimistic about maintaining a European push as we venture into the second half of the season.

Southampton enter this game on the back of a disappointing 3-1 home defeat to Arsenal, the first time they had conceded 3 goals in a game since a 3-2 home defeat by Man U in November. Prior to the Arsenal defeat the Saints had been strong at the back, having only conceded 5 goals in 10 matches in all comps. Aston Villa meanwhile recorded a win in their last outing, a comfortable 2-0 home win against Newcastle.

League positions

Southampton – 11th (29 points, played 19)
Aston Villa – 9th (at time of writing 29 points, played 17 – playing Burnley (A) Weds 27th Jan)

League form

Southampton – DDWLL
Aston Villa – WDLLW

Team news

The St Mary's infirmary is well-occupied at the moment with absentees as Vestergaard, Moussa Djenepo, Mohammed Salisu and Oriol Romeu continuing to nurse various injuries. No firm updates at present but there’s a possibility that Romeu will be back for this one.

I think it’s fair to say there’s an expectation that Bertrand will return to the starting line up following his one match suspension but it remains to be seen whether KWP will return following a quad problem picked up prior to the Arsenal game.

Aston Villa look to continue to be without Kortney Hause and Wesley Moraes. There could be further additions if Burnley give a few of them a good kicking this evening.

Head to head (all comps)

Southampton wins – 28

Drawn – 23

Aston Villa wins – 28

Recent meetings

The head to head record has been improved somewhat recently due to the current 9 match unbeaten run (including a current run of 6 wins out of 7), which began with a 0-0 draw away at Villa Park on 19 April 2014. I was there for that one! Ah nostalgia… Prior to that we recorded our first win back in the top flight against them, a 4-1 win including a Lambert double.

There have certainly been some exciting performances in recent years, most notably some JWP magic in our last meeting which included a late Villa fightback:

And who can forget the Mané magic on 16 May 2015. I don’t even need to tell you what happened that day!

https://www.premierleague.com/video/single/1668825?TAG=On this Day

Prediction: 2-0. Saints back to winning ways due to some returns to the squad.

 

Can we take out Grealish please in retaliation for them injuring Ings.

#stillbitter

 

Go on then!!

 

Saturday 30th January 2021 20:00 KO SOUTHAMPTON V ASTON VILLA

Referee: Lee Mason.
Assistants: Mark Scholes, Simon Long.
Fourth official: Tim Robinson.
VAR: Mike Dean.
Assistant VAR: Andy Halliday.

 

Is there a worse combination? Lee Mason on the pitch, and desperate-to-be-involved Mike Dean in the VAR booth

 

At least Dean mostly gets things right. Mason is just awful.

 

Villla blew it at Burnley lost 2 - 3 after being 2 - 1 up.

 

Exactly half way through the season and whilst some recent results have been disappointing we are on 29 points which is a very good return compared to some seasons.

Should be a good game, both teams have skillful players, play entertaining football and prone to the odd howler.

A good time to get back to winning ways.
We March On

 

Villa would far more dangerous if they weren’t throwing themselves on the floor, screaming in agony and harassing the referee to get players booked
They are good enough not to have to go in for all this cheating nonsense

 

They will give is a tough game, more so now they blew it at Burnley as they have something to prove. Will be a close game and could go either way. Probably a draw, and given our injuries, would be satisfied with that.

 

Could be a Shlong on the pitch and a Schlong on the line at some point

 

Not heard much about KWP, other than a comment from Ralph (in the Echo) that he doesn’t know and needs to talk to the doctor.
Given that whoever plays at right back will spend most of the game up against Grealish, this is a hard decision to make.
Valery or Diallo, if Romeu is ready to play? Or even JWP?

 

Much as I hate to see him playing there, I'd be inclined to put our ****house JWP in there. We still have his ability from dead ball situations retained, plus the dynamism of Diallo and the physicality of Romeu in midfield could be a pretty effective combination.

Only until KWP is back though, obviously.

 

I did wonder if JWP had any room in his pocket, what with Zaha being in there.

 

Not a bad call at all and I would agree on JWP assuming Romeu is back. That said, I thought Vokes and Valery both improved as the Arsenal game wore on- the bigger picture is arguably to not waste that game experience and help them develop into worthy backups. Don’t be surprised if Ralph sticks with Valery.

 

Another 'bugger, I'm missing it' fixture. Love Villa fans. In the Koeman days we played them around Christmas/New Year when we were flying high but going through a crap patch and they hadn't scored since Edward VIII had abdicated. We scraped a 1-1 draw and on the train I asked one of their fans if he thought this would be the start of a revival. "No way, we're crap. Heard some of your lot moaning about the possibility of mid-table mediocrity. We dream of mid-table mediocrity, mate."

My fondness doesn't stretch to them beating us, mind. Should be a real game, and I'm going for a Che Adams return to goal-scoring with Redmond's assists to really piss them off!

 

Chilcs is going to be on your case!...

 

To be fair I think contractions are allowed.






Especially if you’re giving birth.

 

Even unintentional ones?...

 

I think only mowgli can answer that!