Premier League | Gameweek 20

Jan 4, 2025 at 3pm UK

St. Mary's Stadium

Southampton vs Brentford

Match preview

The two games that Juric has been in charge of have ended in two defeats for the club, leaving them in a pretty bad situation as we hit the midway point.

After a narrow 1-0 defeat at home to West Ham United, Southampton again showed promise away to Crystal Palace last week, taking the lead through Tyler Dibling, but still falling to a 2-1 loss.

That means the Saints have only picked up one win and six points from their first 19 games of the season, and could equal Sunderland's record for the worst ever start after 20 matches with another defeat here.

Not even the infamous Derby County team of 2007-08, which ended up with a record-low 11 points, had so few points at this stage of a campaign, with it already seeming like they were going to be relegated.

Southampton are rock bottom, eight points adrift of Leicester City in 19th, and 10 points from safety with half of the season still to play, so they'll need the greatest recovery in Premier League history to survive from here.

They've only scored 12 league goals so far, which is the lowest in the division, and they've still conceded over two goals per game this season, even though they've tightened up at the back since sacking Russell Martin.

They've only let in three goals in the last three games since Martin left, but now they're up against a team that's been scoring goals left, right and centre this season, Brentford.

Not only that, Brentford have won the last four head-to-heads, scoring 11 goals in the process, and they have the opportunity to win successive away games at Southampton for the first time ever here.

But their away form is one of the worst in the Premier League recently, with 17 losses in their last 23 games.

They haven't won a single away game this season and have only picked up two points from 27.

And their home form isn't much better. They've had back-to-back defeats at the Gtech, and that comes after a run of seven games where they won 19 points.

The only Premier League fixture on New Year's Day saw the Bees host Arsenal, and despite taking the lead through Bryan Mbeumo, Brentford's defensive weaknesses showed, with the title contenders scoring three unanswered goals to cruise to victory.

The only game they haven't lost in their last five is the 0-0 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion, and even then they're in 12th place, even though they're one of the top scorers in the league.

The gap to the top six is still only seven points, so it's not insurmountable, but with Manchester City and Liverpool to come in their next two, Frank will really want to see his side pick up a win here.

Recent Performance

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Southampton form (all competitions):LLLDLL

Brentford Premier League form:LWLLDL

Brentford form (all competitions):WLLLDL

Team News

Southampton will be without midfielder Mateus Fernandes after his booking in the defeat at Palace triggered a one-match suspension, so Juric will hope to have Flynn Downes back from a dead leg ahead of this one.

Will Smallbone should be back in midfield soon, but a knock is likely to keep Jack Stephens sidelined for a couple of weeks.

After being left on the bench by Martin for the first few months of the season, Armel Bella-Kotchap was included in the matchday squad for the first time in the league last week, and Juric is also planning to play three centre-backs.

Brentford's injury list is one of the longest in the Premier League, and a lot of the absentees are in defence, where Frank is down to the barebones.

Ethan Pinnock, Kristoffer Ajer and Ben Mee are all currently out, so Sepp van den Berg's return on New Year's Day was well timed, even if his minutes were managed.

Mark Flekken was also able to make a speedy recovery in goal after being forced off early on in the draw with Brighton, while Mathias Jensen got his first minutes in over a month against Arsenal.

Possible starting lineup

Southampton possible starting lineup:

Ramsdale; Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Wood; Bree, Ugochukwu, Downes, Walker-Peters; Dibling, Onuachu, Armstrong

Brentford possible starting lineup:

Flekken; Roerslev, Collins, Van den Berg, Lewis-Potter; Janelt, Norgaard, Jensen; Mbeumo, Wissa, Damsgaard