Newcastle United vs Southampton

Newcastle United and Southampton will both be looking to grab their first Premier League win this season when they lock horns at St James’ Park this weekend.

Consecutive two-goal margin losses to being their new Premier League campaign have thrown Newcastle’s hopes of securing their first top-half finish since 2017/18 into a corridor of doubt. The last time they lost each of their first three top-flight fixtures was in 1999/00, incidentally succumbing to Southampton in the third defeat that time. However, the recent H2H record heavily favors the ‘Magpies’ who have ended up on the winning side in four of their last five Premier League duels (L1), prevailing by a single-goal margin on each occasion. Spanning back to 2019/20, Steve Bruce’s men have managed just two clean sheets across their last 24 Premier League games at St James’ Park. That might not be as worrying as the fact they’ve lost three of their last four such contests (W1), conceding an average of 3.33 goals across those reverses.

On the other hand, Southampton are winless in the Premier League this season (D1, L1), despite drawing first blood in both top-flight fixtures so far. An encouraging 1-1 home draw with Manchester United last weekend was followed up by an 8-0 dismantling of Newport in the Carabao Cup midweek to announce new dawn under Ralph Hasenhüttl’s reign. Although the visitors head into proceedings in high spirits, a run of six consecutive away Premier League losses will hardly inspire the traveling fans. Another defeat here could invoke some traumatic memories from the past, with Southampton suffering relegation from the Premier League the last time they lost seven consecutive away league matches. Holding onto a lead has been Southampton’s ‘Achilles heel’ during Hasenhüttl’s tenure, with the ‘Saints’ dropping a staggering 62 points from winning positions in England’s top-flight, at least 12 more than any other team.