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28 min: … so having said that, Saints string a few passes together in the Leicester half. They probe down both flanks, but never look like finding the killer ball into the box. The home fans get a bit testy at an apparent lack of dynamism.
26 min: The football briefly turns into a hot potato. Moves of more than two passes are at a premium right now.
24 min: Tete’s persistence down the right wins a corner. Maddison plays it short, combining with Tete before pulling back for Barnes, whose shot bagatelles around the Saints box for a while. Bazunu eventually clears. Leicester look the most likely to open the scoring.
23 min: Sulemana dinks the ball past Pereira and makes good ground down the left before checking infield. He lays off to Lavia, who swings a fairly aimless cross out for a goal kick. A little better from Saints, who haven’t achieved too much in attack. “I’m surprised Mary thinks of it as a march toward relegation and not a waltz,” begins Peter Oh. “In any case, if it’s any consolation to her, relegation/death is not necessarily the end. There is rebirth/reincarnation in the Championship, and hope of resurrection/promotion. Chin up Waltz!”
21 min: Alcaraz is quite rightly booked for lunging in on Castagne, catching the Leicester defender on the top of his foot. More mistimed in eagerness than malicious.
20 min: Maddison whips a vicious ball into the mixer. He finds Iheanacho, six yards out. Iheanacho doesn’t react, the ball pinging off his head and sailing inches wide left. No idea how that stayed out, though Iheanacho saw that late and didn’t have a clue what was going on. So close to the opener.
19 min: Maddison probes down the left and is eventually upended by an impatient Walcott. A stupid foul to give away. A free kick in a dangerous position, just to the side of the Saints box. Maddison gets up and prepares to take it himself.
18 min: Lavia gets back up. He’s good to continue.
16 min: Barnes crosses deep from the left. Iheanacho eyebrows a header out for a goal kick. Then Lavia goes down, requiring some treatment. We pause.
15 min: Alcaraz makes his way into the Leicester box down the right. His shot pinballs out for a corner that comes to nothing.
13 min: Leicester pin Southampton back. Tete slings in a couple of crosses from the right. Both are half-cleared. Then Tete attempts a shot. Blocked. Finally Maddison slips a cute pass down the inside-right channel to release Pereira into the box. Pereira is caught in two minds, between crossing from Iheanacho in the middle and aiming a curler across Bazunu and into the top left. He achieves nothing. Goal kick.
11 min: All a bit scrappy now. Saturday evening prime-time light entertainment, right here!
9 min: Tete dribbles into the Saints box from the right and hits a tame cross-cum-shot that apologetically rolls into the hands of Bazunu at the near post. “I have to admit the only reason I am watching this fixture is to find out who will a join Everton on the long death march to relegation,” writes Mary Waltz. “Yippy!”
8 min: Leicester were opened up awfully easily there. Goodness knows what Faes was doing, haring after Maitland-Niles only to mistime his tackle in clumsy fashion.
6 min: Maitland-Niles skips past a Faes lunge and tears down the right touchline. He storms into the box and cuts back for Walcott, who slaps a poor first-time shot straight at his team-mate Sulemana. Leicester breathe a sigh of relief and clear. In a parallel universe somewhere, it’s already 1-1.
5 min: That really was the sublime to the ridiculous within a couple of seconds from Iheanacho. Such a lovely take and spin into space; such a comically awful attempted pass. A competent execution would surely have seen Leicester ahead.
3 min: Iheanacho spins into space in the midfield. A simple pass down the middle would release Maddison on goal, but he clanks the ball straight at the nearest Saints player. Maddison gesticulates to the space ahead of him, smoke parping out of his ears.
2 min: Ward-Prowse’s delivery isn’t all that. Leicester clear their lines.
1 min: Saints start quickly, Walker-Peters drifting in from the left and feeding Alcaraz, who has a crack from distance. The shot is deflected wide right for the first corner of the evening.
Leicester get the match started. Anticipation crackles around St Mary’s.
The teams are out! Southampton wear their bizarro Rank Xerox shirts, while Leicester sport their royal blue. “Congratulations on landing the gig to MBM the C̶l̶a̶u̶d̶e̶ ̶P̶u̶e̶l̶ Jannik Vestergaard derby,” writes Vivek Rajendra. “That is it. There’s nothing much else I can think of about this game really, which I predict will end goalless. Or 4-0 to Leicester. Or 1-0 to Southampton. This game will feature fewer goals than double-barrel named players. You can take that to the bank.” We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers chats to Sky. “We have looked at the areas where we need to be better … defensively more aggressive … when we defend well as a team, we normally pass well as a team … we had a tough start, decent in the middle before the World Cup, then a challenge to get going again … but it’s a great opportunity for us today to climb the table … a tough game but we’re ready for it … James Maddison is the player with the big personality … one of the top players in the league … when you have that talent in your team you always have a chance … you have to earn the right, you have to be strong and aggressive and defend well, then look for your talent and quality to come through.”
Southampton’s caretaker manager Ruben Selles talks to Sky Sports. “It is obvious we did not have the best week … we need to turn things around … we have been working and reflecting … we need to be better … we are here and we are ready to go, to make a good game and perform at our best level … if we do that, we will have chances to win the game … we need to exploit our best strengths … Che Adams has the expertise to manage the big moments in the game.”
Southampton and Leicester won’t be too displeased with the results of the 3pm kick-offs. Of the clubs in the relegation orbit, only Wolverhampton Wanderers won; Bournemouth, Leeds, West Ham and Crystal Palace all lost. The Wolves win means Leicester fall one place for now, though the Foxes can move up three places to 12th with a win this evening. Victory for Saints will lift them off the bottom at the expense of Bournemouth and possibly, if the goals fly in, Everton.
Southampton make four changes to the side that went down 1-0 at Leeds United last week. Kyle Walker-Peters, Carlos Alcaraz, Theo Walcott and Che Adams come in for Romain Perraud, Stuart Armstrong, Mohamed Elyounoussi and Ebere Onuachu, all of whom drop to the bench.
Leicester make three changes to the starting XI named for the 1-0 home loss to Arsenal. Ricardo Pereira, Nampalys Mendy and James Maddison come in for Victor Kristiansen, Wilfred Ndidi and Dennis Praet.
The teams
Southampton: Bazunu, Maitland-Niles, Bednarek, Bella-Kotchap, Walker-Peters, Lavia, Alcaraz, Ward-Prowse, Walcott, Sulemana, Adams.
Subs: Caballero, Salisu, Perraud, Djenepo, Elyounoussi, S Armstrong, Mara, Onuachu, A Armstrong.
Leicester City: Ward, Pereira, Souttar, Faes, Castagne, Dewsbury-Hall, Mendy, Maddison, Tete, Barnes, Iheanacho.
Subs: Iversen, Amartey, Thomas, Soyuncu, Ndidi, Soumare, Praet, Daka, Vardy.
Preamble
A couple of teams in a bad place, right here. Southampton are bottom of the Premier League; Leicester City are only three points above the relegation zone. And if that’s not bad enough, both teams were knocked out of the FA Cup during the week at home by lower-league opposition, Leicester losing meekly to Blackburn, the Saints humiliated by fourth-tier Grimsby. All of which makes this a game that has the capacity to alter the mood for the better, or make it much, much, much worse. Fun for the neutral, then, if not for the teams involved, with the additional bonus that when these two clubs meet, the outcome varies wildly: Saints won at the King Power earlier in the season; Leicester won here 9-0 just three seasons ago. Kick off is at 5.30pm GMT. It’s on!
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