Premier League preview: Southampton v Fulham

Southampton conceding against United

Plenty of goals should be guaranteed when Southampton take on Fulham.

Having said that, we could end up seeing a dull goalless draw, but if you’re a Southampton or Fulham fan, that wouldn’t be what you’re hoping for.

For Southampton, there have been a total of 28 goals in their fixtures this season, and Fulham have been involved in 22. However, it is Southampton that have seen the majority of their total fly past them, rather than in the opposition’s net.

As a result of this, No.1 ‘keeper Kelvin Davis hasn’t featured in the last couple of games, and the responsibility has fallen onto the shoulders of Paulo Gazzaniga, brought in since the Saints were given a 6-1 pasting by Arsenal at the Emirates in September.

Had results gone their way, then Southampton could very well be mid-table or better, not one place above the relegation zone.

They led the champions Manchester City 2-1 at the Etihad before shipping in two goals to lose, whilst against the other Manchester club of United, they were 2-1 up and were beaten 3-2 thanks to Robin van Persie’s hat-trick, sealed in the final few minutes of the game.

Their only win has come at St Mary’s, which was an impressive 4-1 victory over struggling Aston Villa, and manager Nigel Adkins will be looking for his players to produce a similar kind of performance for the visit of Fulham this afternoon.

Despite letting in so many goals, Adkins insists the Saints will not change the way they approach a match.

“You should always be positive because you’ve got to look to win games,” he said. “We do play good passing football and that was demonstrated in good spells in the second half and at home we are very effective in doing that, but it’s about winning games of football.

“You’ve got to score goals to win games of football and, likewise, you’ve got to keep them out at the other end.

“We have shipped far too many goals, it’s something we’re addressing, but likewise you’ve got to understand you’re playing against good players,” Adkins further added.

Fulham have been solid under Martin Jol, and many are still stunned about the summer capture of Dimitar Berbatov from United for around £4million.

The Bulgarian ended up being the bargain of the summer transfer window, but he didn’t feature in Fulham’s last game against City, a game in which they lost 2-1, and is likely to be missing once again for this encounter as he continues to recover from a hip injury.

Fulham have had no problems in scoring, and missing Berbatov against City seemed to have knocked their confidence.

“But of course Berbatov has qualities that can make a difference against a team like Manchester City,” said Jol on his star man not being involved.

“Someone told me he’s played 10 times against them and lost only once which gave me confidence. So it was very disappointing for us when he got his injury,” he said.

Over the last few years, Fulham on the road have had a little amount of victories, but already this season they have picked up three points away from home against Wigan.

With Southampton not changing their style of play, and Fulham being a different side away from home, the impetus is on Southampton, and that will see them get the better of Fulham in front of their own supporters.

Prediction: Southampton 3 Fulham 2

İsmail Vedat

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