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Southampton 11th (4-6-6) vs Leicester City 8th (6-5-5)
Wednesday 2:45 PM ET, St. Mary’s Stadium Live on the NBC Gold app
The Foxes snatched all three points from Newcastle in a style I can only akin to something straight out of FIFA 18.
The Competition
A couple of 1-1 draws against Arsenal and Bournemouth have led to a mediocre December for the Saints so far. Their inability to hold onto a late and slender lead against the Gunners, something Leicester struggles with as well to be fair, meant points were shared last time out at St. Mary’s Stadium. Against Bournemouth they conceded just before halftime, but managed to even the honors thanks to in form striker Charlie Austin.
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Once an up-and-comer scoring bags of goals in the Premier League, Austin has had to settle for starts whenever he can get them over the past few years. Injuries seem to follow him like a plague and they always seem to pop up right when he get’s a good head of steam going. It’s unfortunate for a player who has all the talents to be at least a 10 goal a season man for any club in the Prem.
Charlie Austin is certainly one of Southampton’s biggest danger men, but we’d be silly to leave out Dusan Tadic, who certainly knows how to score against Leicester.
The Foxes
Shinji Okazaki might be Leicester’s biggest threat on offense now. Not only is he scoring goals at will, he can put the opposition in such a haze they’ll start scoring on themselves!
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I expect a heavy squad rotation at Southampton this evening. Christian Fuchs, Islam Slimani, maybe even Ahmed Musa(?!). Hopefully we’ll get another taste of Hamza Choudhury, potentially partnered up with Andy King.
The Prediction
I’ve been calling for it the past couple of weeks now, but I seriously think Jamie Vardy will get his 50th goal today. He’ll come off the bench in the second half and torture the Saints to their own tune of “When Vardy comes marching in” and bag the winner. It’ll finish 2-1 to the Foxes.