English Premier
2013-05-19 - Southampton vs Stoke City
A Sports Betting Pick by ArmchairPunter
Football – England – Premier League
Sunday 19th May 2013 – Kickoff: 1600hrs
SOUTHAMPTON
Southampton take on Stoke City at the St Marys ground on Sunday afternoon with the hosts looking for their first home win since the end of March when they beat Chelsea 2-1 and given Stoke’s poor away record this could be a welcome three points on the last day of the season for The Saints.
Southampton showed good character to gain a point at the Stadium of Light when they drew 1-1 with Sunderland after going a goal down and further spirit is needed if they are to take all the points on Sunday following a run of five matches without a win. This recent period of form has included three draws against West Ham, Swansea City and Sunderland as well as back-to-back defeats against West Brom and Tottenham.
However, month before last Saints recorded three wins on the trot against Liverpool, Chelsea and Reading and they have a good chance of getting back on track here today and improve on their overall home record of 6-6-6 25/23. Striker and leading scorer Rickie Lambert (14 goals, 5 assists) is the danger man up front and he has the creativity of Adam Lallana (3 goals, 5 assists) in support as well as Puncheon (6 goals), Rodriguez (6 goals, 5 assists) and Schneiderlin (5 goals) all capable of grabbing important goals.
STOKE CITY
Visitors Stoke City travel south in search of just their third away win of the season following rare wins at QPR 2-0 last month and their first win which was way back in early December when they beat West Brom 1-0. Stoke’s overall away record stands at 2-7-9 12/22 and it’s not just the lack of wins but lack of goals on the road which manager Tony Pulis will look to correct over the summer.
The Potters have drawn no fewer than nine blanks in their away matches so far this season and recently endured a wretched run of six straight defeats on their travels with defeats at Man City, Swansea, Arsenal, Fulham, Newcastle United and Everton and they’ve scored just 5 goals in their last ten matches.
Striker Peter Crouch (6 goals) has had an unusually quiet season to date and Walters (8 goals) in 37 matches has also under-delivered against expectations. Former Saint Kenwyn Jones faces his former club and he may well be wishing he’d stayed at St Marys after allegedly finding a pigs head in his locker at a recent training ground incident.
THE BETTING VERDICT:
Saints collectively possess more players capable of creating and scoring chances and given home advantage as well, I’ll back the hosts for all three points here today in what could be a 1-0 win.
The Statistics :
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Pick :
Southampton 1 Stoke City 0
BEST BETTING TIP :
Pick:Take Southampton straight win @ 1.83 Paddy Power
