Norwich v Southampton: Premier League betting preview, free tip & TV details

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Norwich v Southampton in the Premier League on Friday.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Premier League & Sky One 6pm Friday

Best bets

Norwich
1pt 9-4 Betfred

Team news

Norwich
Grant Hanley (hamstring), Christoph Zimmerman (back) and Sam Byram (hamstring) are out but Ondrej Duda's loan deal has been extended. Timm Klose and Onel Hernandez are fit again.

Southampton
Moussa Djenepo has a three-match suspension while this game is likely to come too soon for Shane Long, who is struggling with a muscle injury.

Match preview

Bookmakers believe that Norwich's survival hopes are slim to none but the Canaries could provide their absent supporters with a shot in the arm by securing a hugely valuable three points when they host Southampton.

There are plenty of reasons to be concerned for Norwich, who are six points adrift of safety and have won only twice since December, and the likelihood is that they will still be relegated despite the opportunity to take stock over the last few months.

However, the Canaries, who play an attractive brand of football under Daniel Farke, will be hopeful of putting up a fight in their bid to avoid an immediate return to the Sky Bet Championship.

They have a mixed run-in, facing three direct relegation rivals in July but also taking on Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City. As such, it is imperative that they return to action with a bang against the 14th-placed Saints.

Bookmakers are favouring Ralph Hasenhuttl's visitors, partly down to a belief that Premier League results will follow the Bundesliga blueprint underlining a lack of home advantage.

Norwich have picked up 15 of their 21 points in front of their own fans and will presumably be worse off for playing at an empty Carrow Road against opponents who have the sixth-best away record in the Premier League.

However, Southampton are only a shade of odds-against to win this match. Due to a season-long inconsistency that is likely to see them finish mid-table, there are reasons to believe they are overrated in the market.

Hasenhuttl's Saints famously met with an embarrassing 9-0 loss against Leicester in October and the German looked to be treading a thin line before the south-coast outfit proceeded to seven of 11 league matches between 30 November and 21 January.

Southampton picked up 22 points during that period, which almost certainly did enough to seal their safety, but just 12 in the 18 matches which took place either side of that run.

However, since February, Saints have been beaten by Liverpool, Burnley, West Ham and Newcastle with their only Premier League victory in five matches coming at home to Aston Villa.

The break could have done them good but it is impossible to know and, at the available odds, Norwich could prove to be a better bet.

The Canaries struggled for goals following the turn of the year, with star striker Teemu Pukki failing to match his 2019 exploits. But they have lost just one of their last five at home, and that came in the form of a battling 1-0 loss against champions-elect Liverpool.

It might not be so easy for Farke's men to replicate those performances without the backing of a boisterous home crowd but they produced a strong finish in the Championship last season and it's worth expecting them to at least battle in a bid to pull off a great escape.

Key stat

Southampton lost four of their last five Premier League matches prior to the break.

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