Southampton host Manchester United at St Mary’s Stadium on Sunday in their first home game of the 2021/22 Premier League season.
Visitors United hope to continue their ferocious start to the season, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side disintegrating Leeds United last week. Bruno Fernandes scored a hat-trick and Paul Pogba supplied four assists in a vigorous display. Ahead of the upcoming campaign, there is a real sense of excitement among fans.
For Southampton, however, the opening day was not an occasion for fans to remember, with the Saints losing 3-1 to Everton at Goodison Park. New signing Adam Armstrong opened the scoring, but Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side were poorly organised and were ill-disciplined, and, duly, they conceded three second-half goals to the Toffees.
They have been tipped to struggle this season, after a 2020/21 campaign tangled with injuries. And having lost key players Danny Ings and Jannik Vestergaard to Aston Villa and Leicester City respectively, some believe the south-coast side's squad is not bristling with quality.
Southampton will be firmly up against it this weekend, but they have surprised before and definitely have the capability to stun again here.
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Team News
Southampton
Southampton will continue to be without Will Smallbone, who is sidelined with a long-term knee injury. But provided there are no new knocks picked up in the coming days, Ralph Hasenhuttl will have the same squad available to select for the upcoming game as he did against Everton.
Manchester United
Meanwhile, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer remains without Marcus Rashford (shoulder) and Alex Telles (ankle) through injury, while Dean Henderson continues to recover from Covid-19.
Jesse Lingard is back in training having testing negative for Covid-19 and was on the scoresheet in United’s behind-closed-doors 3-1 friendly win over Burnley at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
New signing Raphael Varane wasn’t involved in the friendly but having started training with his new teammates, the Frenchman is set to be a part of the Reds’ travelling squad. Edinson Cavani trained on Wednesday and could start on the bench at St Mary’s.
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Date, kick-off time and venue
Southampton vs Manchester United is scheduled for a 2pm BST kick-off on Sunday, August 22, 2021.
The match will take place at St Mary’s Stadium.
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How to watch
The match will be televised on Sky Sports Premier League and Main Event, or, alternatively, you can follow the game live on VAVEL with text commentary/analysis.
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Predicted lineups
Southampton predicted XI (4-4-2): McCarthy, Walker-Peters, Stephens, Salisu, Perraud, Armstrong, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Djenepo, Adams, Armstrong
Man Utd predicted XI (4-2-3-1): De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw, Fred, McTominay, James, Fernandes, Pogba, Greenwood
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One to watch - Bruno Fernandes
With a phenomenal hat-trick last week, Bruno Fernandes is certainly one to look out for this week. Since arriving in Manchester, the Portuguese starlet has dazzled with 29 goals in 52 league games.
He's United's key man, and he will be hungry to replicate his form last time out.