Southampton vs Brentford Preview: Team News & Prediction

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Championship-bound Southampton will be seeking to avoid Derby County’s record lowest points tally in the Premier League as they begin their 2025 with a clash against Brentford.

Kick-off date/time: Saturday 4th January, 2025: UK – 3:00pm / US ET – 10:00am / US PT – 7:00am

How to watch on TV: UK – Not televised / US – Not televised

How to watch online: UK – Cannot be streamed / US – Peacock

Southampton Preview: Saints need a miracle

In their opening 19 games of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign, Southampton have collected just six points with just one victory. Saints begin the year sitting ten points adrift of safety with their main aim for this season being to avoid Derby County’s 11 points from 2008.

Former Torino and Roma boss Ivan Juric was appointed to replace Russell Martin over the festive period and, despite improving their solidity and being more direct, they did suffer back-to-back narrow defeats against West Ham United and then Crystal Palace.

Brentford Preview: Bees no longer buzzing

After a half of this campaign, Brentford’s 19 matches have consisted of 68 goals, which is perhaps at odds with what made them so effective in their first couple of seasons following promotion to the Premier League, with their form built upon defensive solidity.

They have, though, been a lot more entertaining to watch and remain in contention to push towards the top seven or eight and potential European qualifying spots this season. They most recently suffered a 3-1 defeat to Arsenal on New Year’s Day.

Southampton Team News: Downes a doubt

Ivan Juric has said he will make a decision on Friday with regards to the availability of midfielder Flynn Downes. Saints will be without fellow midfielder Mateus Fernandes due to suspension, whilst Will Smallbone continues to edge closer towards full fitness.

Predicted XI (3-4-2-1): Ramsdale; Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Wood; Bree, Lallana, Aribo, Walker-Peters; Dibling, Armstrong; Onuachu

Unavailable: Bazunu (Injured), Stephens (Injured), Fernandes (Suspended), Larios (Injured), Stewart (Injured)

Questionable: Downes (Fitness), Smallbone (Injured)

Brentford Team News: Carvalho’s injury issue

In his pre-match press conference, Thomas Frank confirmed that Fabio Carvalho has a minor groin injury, which is why he missed the clash with Arsenal on New Year’s Day. He remains a doubt for this weekend with Brentford suffering from a plethora of defensive injury issues, too.

Predicted XI (4-1-2-1-2): Flekken; Roerslev, Collins, Van den Berg, Lewis-Potter; Norgaard; Janelt, Yarmolyuk; Damsgaard; Wissa, Mbeumo

Unavailable: Ajer (Injured), Mee (Injured), Pinnock (Injured), Hickey (Injured), Henry (Injured), Dasilva (Injured), Nunes (Injured), Thiago (Injured)

Questionable: Carvalho (Injured)

Southampton vs Brentford Prediction

Southampton have been able to become a bit more direct and solid of late, as was initially shown in their goalless draw at Fulham a couple of weeks ago with interim coach Simon Rusk at the helm. They will once again try to show that against Brentford this weekend with the Bees lacking the fluency that they had at the start of this season, now failing to score more than one goal in a game in six of their last seven matches across all competitions.

Southampton vs Brentford Tip: Under 3.5 goals