Southampton vs Brighton predictions: More home hurt for hapless Saints
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- Southampton are bottom of the table, 10 points adrift of safety
- Brighton are 10th but only seven points behind fourth-placed Man City
- Recommended bet: Brighton and over 2.5 goals
Rock-bottom Southampton will be seeking just a third Premier League victory of the season when they welcome south-coast rivals Brighton to St Mary's Stadium on Saturday.
It has been a miserable campaign for the Saints, who look almost certain to be playing Championship football again next season after accumulating just nine points from their 25 top-flight games to date.
Brighton sit midtable, but are within touching distance of the European places, and back-to-back wins in league and cup against Chelsea has helped them bounce back from their 7-0 mauling at Nottingham Forest at the start of the month.
Team news
Saints could be boosted by the return of defenders Taylor Harwood-Bellis (ankle) and Jack Stephens (calf), as well as experienced midfielder Adam Lallana (hamstring) for this game, but Ross Stewart (calf), Flynn Downes and Ryan Fraser (both knocks) are all still sidelined.
Brighton captain Lewis Dunk remains a doubt with a rib issue he picked up in the FA Cup win over Chelsea, while Jason Steele (shoulder), Ferdi Kadioglu (toe), Igor Julio (hamstring), James Milner (hamstring), Solly March (muscle) and Pervis Estupinan (muscle) are confirmed absentees.
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The stats
Southampton hold the worst home record in the Premier League, collecting just one win and four points from their 12 matches at St Mary's this season.
Ivan Juric's side have lost seven league matches on the spin on home soil, conceding three or more goals in all but one of those games.
Brighton have lost just one of their last seven away matches across all competitions, although that sole defeat was the 7-0 hammering at Forest in their most recent road fixture.
Of Brighton's nine league wins this season, only three have come against sides that started the day in the bottom half of the standings.
The Seagulls have never lost a Premier League away game at Southampton in six previous visits (W2, D4).
These two sides played out a 1-1 draw when they last met at the Amex Stadium in November, Flynn Downes equalising for Southampton after Kaoru Mitoma had opened the scoring for Brighton.
Prediction
Southampton's home record is nothing short of atrocious, with the Saints having lost each of their last seven league games at St Mary's, conceding an eye-watering 25 goals in the process.
With relegation seeming inevitable, the Saints still have work to do to better Derby's lowest ever points total in a Premier League season and it is hard to see them getting anything against Brighton.
Fabian Hurzeler's visitors were stung by Forest in their last away fixture, but they showed in their two subsequent games against Chelsea that they have not been scarred by that setback.
This is a Brighton team packed full of attacking talent and they should have a field day against the division's leakiest defence.
However, as Forest showed, the Seagulls are not exactly watertight at the back themselves, and with the Saints having scored in five successive league games, they can contribute to an open and potentially high-scoring contest.
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