Southampton v Watford: free football tip, betting preview & team news

Free football tip, team news and preview for Southampton v Watford in the Premier League on Saturday evening.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Premier League & Main Event, 5.30pm Saturday

Best bet

Southampton
1pt 23-20 BoyleSports, Sky Bet
Back this tip with Coral here

Team news

Southampton
Jannik Vestergaard (illness) is available but Sofiane Boufal (toe) is a doubt and Stuart Armstrong (hamstring) is out.

Watford
Craig Dawson (head) joins Danny Welbeck, Christian Kabasele (both hamstring), Daryl Janmaat, Sebastian Prodl (both knee) and Tom Cleverley (heel) on the sidelines but Domingos Quina (groin) and Roberto Pereyra (thigh) are back in training.

Match preview

Southampton came agonisingly close to a significant victory at Arsenal last Saturday and they can make amends by defeating relegation rivals Watford at St Mary's Stadium.

Saints fans have had their patience stretched to the limit over the last 18 months.

Last season they had to wait until mid-December to witness a Premier League home victory - a 3-2 success over Arsenal.

And they have gone through a similarly painful experience this term with only one point collected from six home games.

If they fail to beat Watford, Southampton will become the first club in English top-flight history to fail to win any of the opening seven home games in consecutive campaigns.

However, it sometimes takes just one performance and result to turn a season around and Southampton's may have arrived last Saturday, when they played with renewed purpose and vigour to draw 2-2 at the Emirates.

They outshot the Gunners 21 to 12 and should have been out of sight by the time Alexandre Lacazette levelled things up in the sixth minute of injury-time.

The key to the big improvement was a change of system – from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 - and the introduction of striker Michael Obafemi, who added much-needed pace and energy at the top end of the pitch.

Southampton's high press returned and was instrumental in forcing mistakes from the Gunners, who kept giving the ball away in key areas.

Ralph Hasenhuttl will be asking for another front-foot performance and if he gets his wish it should be too much for a Watford side who seem unable to wake up from their early-season slumbers.

Watford felt they had taken a massive step forward by winning 2-0 at Norwich 15 days ago but they followed it up with a dreadful performance in a 3-0 loss at home to Burnley.

Injuries are taking a massive toll on the defence with centre-backs Sebastian Prodl, Christian Kabasele and Craig Dawson plus first-choice right wing-back Daryl Janmaat out of contention.

Watford's midfield has improved since Etienne Capoue returned from injury and they could function better in attack with fit-again striker Troy Deeney poised to make his first start since August.

But the team's fragile confidence ebbed away in the second half against Burnley and it may take a while to rebuild.

Hornets head coach Quique Sanchez Flores likes to build his teams from the back and will be counting the days to the winter transfer window when he would hope to welcome a few new defensive recruits.

However, there are a lot of big games to manage between now and January and the first is unlikely to yield any points.