Led by Argentine coaches, Southampton and Tottenham will cross paths this Sunday, January 21, in a match for the 24th round of the English Premier League in their 2017/2018 season. At St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton, the game is scheduled to start at 14h (GMT).

Southampton’s recent performance

Mauricio Pellegrino has not achieved the same success he achieved in the previous season when he took Alavés to the final of the King’s Cup in Southampton. With only 21 points (four wins, nine draws and ten losses), the team, which used to attend the first half of the table of the English Championship, is at the edge of the relegation zone.
He finished the twenty-third round in seventeenth place. The advantage in comparison with Stoke, eighteenth placed and first in the sticking region, was only one point before the start of day 23.
This has caused instability and the English press reports that the coach could be dismissed even before the end of the season. The exact average of one goal per game has been insufficient to compensate for the many goals taken by the team. The defensive sector has always been favored by Pellegrino, but in Southampton he is failing to raise a wall to handle rival attacks.
What slightly eased the situation of the Argentine coach were the results of the last two games. The team managed to advance to the fourth round of the FA Cup by scoring, away from home, 1-0 at Fullham. Then, they managed to draw with Watford, also as a visitor, 2-2.
What has caused greater concerns and created even more turmoil are the recent home-grown results. In the last four matches at St. Mary’s, Southampton suffered two defeats and drew twice.
Pellegrino can count on the week with almost all the players of the cast in preparation for the match. In the medical department are only defender Maya Yoshida (18 games in the 2017/2018 English Championship, two goals) and striker Charlie Austin (16 games, six goals).

The current form of Tottenham

Guaranteed in the last 16 of the European Champions League, Tottenham also managed to advance in the FA Cup. He beat Wimbledon 3-0 at home to secure a place in the fourth round.
It even extended to six the sequence of games without defeat. It was five wins and one draw. The most recent success was last Saturday, January 13, at home, against Everton. He went 4-0 and remained close to the leaders of the tournament. With 44 points (13 wins, five draws and four defeats), he ranks fifth, closing the qualifying zone for European tournaments.
The technical committee’s main concern in recent days has been to protect striker Harry Kane (22 games in the 2017/2018 English Championship, 20 goals). Questions about a possible transfer to Real Madrid were banned during their interviews. Such speculation should extend until the beginning of February, when the transfer market will be closed. The number of goals Kane has scored shows that this has not affected his performance.
Mauricio Pochettino, who has been far more successful than his compatriot in his experience in the Premier League, has three medical problems to set the team to put on the field on Sunday. Defensive players Toby Alderweireld (ten games in the 2017/2018 English Championship without a goal) and Danny Rose (five games without a goal) are in injury treatment; and midfielder Harry Winks (16 games, no goal).

History of matches Southampton and Tottenham
Tottenham have won the last three meetings with Southampton. In the first round of the 2017/2018 season the Premier League thrashed by 5 to 2.

Harry Kane’s goals often get the attention of Tottenham’s solid defense, which was not leaked in six of the last ten games the team played. The balance has been instrumental in keeping the team in the elite squad of the standings and indicates the London team as the best guess for Sunday’s game. It has a price of 1.61 in Bet365. Tie pays 3.90 and success of the owners of the house yields 5.25 for each real bet. Quotations in force at 4:26 pm on 1/18/2018.