Southampton vs West Ham United Preview

Southampton were very fortunate to have edged out Swansea City in a relegation battle last season to remain in the English top flight.

The appointment of Mark Hughes was credited for their great escape, however, the Welsh man was unable to help them improve this term and with the team in yet another relegation battle, he was relieved of his duties and a new manager was installed.

His replacement is the very energetic Ralph Hasenhuttl who managed RB Leipzig over the past two seasons.

His appointment was seen as a major coup and results on the field haven’t proved otherwise.

He won his second game in charge against Arsenal 3-2 and guided them to another 3-1 success at Huddersfield last time out.  The Saints should be full of confidence when West Ham come visiting for this fixture.

West Ham hired Manuel Pelegrini this summer to give them some pedigree and the Chilean has since been doing a good job.

They were on a run of 4 consecutive wins when they hosted Watford last weekend, but the Hornets burst their bubble by securing a surprising 2-0 win at the London Stadium.

Pellegrini will be looking for a response from his team when they visit the Saint Marys for this game.

West Ham have lost one and won two of their last three games against Southampton, the last of which was a 3-0 win in March.

Bookmakers make Southampton slight favourites to come out on top while goal markets suggest this game will see goals as over 2.5 goals is currently trading odds-on.

Danny Ings and Michael Obafemi are joint favourites to score the first goal at present.

This game gets underway at 19:45 BST.

Other fixtures taking place this week in the Premier League Fixtures:

Premier League Table

Latest Premier League Results