Southampton face off against Chelsea in what will be potentially a rehearsal for the FA Cup tie between the two sides. The Saints are playing a terrible season and stuck in the relegation spot. They are currently in the 18th spot and look set for the drop. The Saints will be hoping to have a change in luck and get some valuable points against a vulnerable Blues side.
The Blues are in a rough patch and will be hoping to get a win themselves to lift their confidence. They have lost of their last 8 matches and they will want to correct their recent slump. However, the Saints are in a bad state of form.
Their season began poorly and has continued to deteriorate since. They have always been in the lower half with players performing poorly. The Van Dijk saga in the summer did even more to unsettle the club and even when the Dutchman finally left in the winter transfer window, the club could not replace him properly.
Pellegrino’s tactics failed to work and he was replaced by Mark Hughes as the boss. With only a handful of games to go, Pellegrino has a job on his hands to fix the results and keep Southampton at the top for another year.
They have some ill news in terms of suspension with Jack Stephens ruled out owing to the red card against Arsenal. Ex-Juventus bot Mario Lemina is recovering from his illness and is a doubt for the match.
Their favoured forward Shane Long is out with an ankle injury alongside Steven Davis who has a knock.
Here is how Hughes will want to set his team up for the match.
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Defence:
Alex McCarthy is expected between the sticks for the Saints and he will have to improve his performance if Southampton want a result against Chelsea.
In the absence of Jack Stephens, Wesley Hoedt and Maya Yoshida will be the pairing at the back line in the middle with Southampton’s best players Ryan Bertrand stationed on the left back position and Cedric Soares on the right back position.
Midfield:
Oriol Romeu will be expected to sit back with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg with James Ward-Prowse playing ahead of them.
Attack:
Sofiane Boufal can be seen on the left flank with Dusan Tadic playing from the right. Their hitman Charlie Austin can be operating as a lone striker on the night for the Saints.
