Southampton vs Bournemouth 21/09/19

21 September 2019

Southampton and Bournemouth will face-off at St. Mary’s Stadium with the hosts going after their elusive first Premier League (PL) home triumph this term.

After a slow start to the season (L2), the home side significantly improved in every aspect of the game. The hosts enter this fixture on a three-game unbeaten run (W2, D1), with both of those wins coming away from home and seeing Southampton beat their rivals to nil. Interestingly, both of the Saints’ PL home games (D1, L1) have witnessed them chase their opponents at the break before pulling one back in the second half. An encouraging fact for Ralph Hasenhüttl is that Southampton never lost a top-flight home clash with Bournemouth (W2, D2), netting over 1.5 match goals three times across those H2Hs.

Meanwhile, the visitors have endured mixed fortunes in the PL so far (W2, D1, L2), with all of their league matches featuring goals on both ends. Curiously, each of Bournemouth’s previous three PL outings has ended with the identical 3-1 scoreline (W1, L2), all following the similar scenario of both teams scoring at least one goal in the first half. When away from home, the Cherries tend to score early in the game and drop afterwards, as all three of their PL away goals came inside the opening 15 minutes. A potential worry for Eddie Howe could be Bournemouth’s lack of goals against Southampton, as they’ve scored one goal or less in five straight H2Hs before a 3-3 draw last season.