Chris Sutton has made his score prediction for Tottenham Hotspur’s visit to the St Mary’s Stadium on Sunday and he thinks the game will be decided by a single goal.
Things are not looking good for Tottenham. Not only are they without a win in their five most recent matches in all competitions, but they still have key players sidelined by injuries. And they could drop to 14th in the Premier League table if they lose to Southampton, depending on other results.
Tottenham’s defending is an often discussed issue and this was certainly the case when they conceded four goals in their Premier League defeat last Sunday against Chelsea.
But their attacking play has also caused concerns, particularly against teams lower in the league, with Spurs either blanking or scoring just one goal against Leicester City, Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, Fulham and Bournemouth this season.
One positive for Spurs though is that Southampton have only won one league match this season and they are bottom of the English top flight, eight points off safety from relegation.
Chris Sutton spent six years of his playing career at Celtic in the early ‘00s and so he was already a huge fan of Ange Postecoglou before he was named Tottenham’s new manager before the start of last season. This is often reflected in his less critical assessments of the former Bhoys head coach.
While many believe Spurs are in a major crisis, Sutton is less concerned and sees their problem as an issue with consistency.
Making his prediction on BBC Sport, he said: “This should be a great game of football.
“It’s one for the purists, really, because Southampton will play their defined style under Russell Martin and Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham will definitely do the same.
“Both managers have been criticised recently and some of the stuff written and said about Postecoglou after Spurs lost to Chelsea was staggering, although it is the same after every defeat.
“As I said on the Monday Night Club, on their day Spurs are the best team to watch in the Premier League, but they are just patchy.
And Sutton is backing Postecoglou’s men to secure a victory because Southampton have ‘bigger problems’ of their own.
“It looks like Saints are going to get relegated but I hope they see the bigger picture when it comes to Martin, he continued.
“For starters, he got them promoted, which wasn’t an easy job. Keeping them up was always going to be even harder but, because Southampton have had a pretty recent spell of doing OK in the Premier League, their fans think they should be doing much better.
“It was a similar story with Leicester under Steve Cooper, where expectations were unrealistic. He got the sack but I hope Saints stick with Martin because with a bit of patience they could come back stronger.
Sutton’s prediction: Southampton 1-2 Tottenham
Five points from 15 matches is really poor, but Southampton have not had an easy run of fixtures. Their past four matches have all been against teams currently in the top seven and they got a point in one of these games against Brighton & Hove Albion, while just one goal separated them from Liverpool and Aston Villa.
Meanwhile, Tottenham have struggled against teams this season they ought to be beating and at the moment they do not look like beating anyone. Neither set of supporters are likely to be feeling confident ahead of this one.
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