Saturday 11th February 15:00, Sunderland face Southampton at the Stadium of Light
Last time out Sunderland beat Crystal Palace 4-0 away and Southampton lost 3-1 at home to West Ham.
Sunderland will look to build on their impressive first half demolition of Big Sam’s Eagles with another win to take them out of the bottom three. Jermain Defoe will be looking forward to playing a weakened Southampton defence without Jose Fonte (sold) and Virgil van Dyke (injured).
Southampton have slumped somewhat after securing their place in the League cup final, having lost their last three games. The Saints sit 8 points above the Black Cats but if they lose this game they could be sucked into the relegation dog fight.
David Moyes:
"John O'Shea and Adnan Januzaj have trained and hopefully both will be available,"
"They've only just trained so we'll need to check and see how they are."
He continued: "Jack Rodwell's not available; it's not as bad as we first feared but nevertheless we think it'll keep him out for a few weeks.
"Jordan's back but the medical team would really like him to complete the time that the surgeon set for his recovery.
"He's training well and I find it hard to understand because he's diving around and he's jumping about, but his time will probably be after this weekend.
"As such, Jordan won't be involved but what I will say is that he's very close to being ready."
Claude Puel:
“The priority is this game against Sunderland, and just this. After this, we will have 15 days to prepare for the final, and that is a long time.
“The priority now is Sunderland and focusing on this team. They are in confidence at the moment, but the most important is to have good concentration and also to have many chances to score.”
“We have had many losses and it's important to have a good reaction and a good answer. We have trained very well this week. I know we are going to make a good game, with a good attitude and good play.”
Head-to-head:
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Jermain Defoe is the highest scoring English man in the Premier League this season and has scored in each of his last two PL matches v Southampton for Sunderland.
There hasn’t been a goalless draw between these sides in any competition since March 1978 – each of the last 37 games has seen at least one goal scored.
Jack Rodwell started last week and is on a roll…
Southampton have lost 6 of their last 7 Premier League games.
Lawro's Prediction: 1:0
Merson's Prediction: 2:0
Referee: Paul Tierney
Assistants: S Beck, A Halliday
Fourth official: N Swarbrick
Team Lineups:
Sunderland
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Subs from Mika, Lescott, Pienaar, Love, Honeyman, Gooch
Injured Rodwell (hamstring) Pickford (knee), Gooch (ankle), Cattermole (hip), Kirchhoff (knee, Mar/Apr), Watmore (knee), McNair (knee)
Suspended Djilobodji (2 games)
Form LDLLDW
Leading scorer Defoe 14
Southampton
Expected Team Forster, Cedric, Stephens, Maya, Bertrand, Romeu, Pierre, Davis, Redmond, Long, Gabbiadini.
Subs from -tbc
Injured Boufal (hamstring), van Dyke (ankle), Austin (shoulder)
Suspended None
Form WWWLLL
Leading scorer Austin 6
Key Men:
Jermain Defoe
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Defoe has scored 14 goals this season and is well on track to beat his 15 goal haul for last season.
Manolo Gabbiadini
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Gabbiadini, signed from Napoli scored 12 minutes into his debut last week against the Hammers
Betting:
Sunderland 29/10
Southampton Evens
Draw 12/5
My two pence...
Well, what a difference a week makes. Even though we are still propping up the table, I am feeling a lot happier and confident that we can pull off another miracle this season. The gap is down to two points and if the results go our way we could even be out of the bottom 3 this weekend. Southampton have created more chances than Chelsea this season but they are conceding lots of goals and their next game is against Man United at Wembley.
I am going for a 2-0 home win.
Ha'way the lads
