Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers meet in the Premier League on Sunday, with both sides enticed by the prospect of securing a crucial win to kick-start their campaign.
Upon the conclusion of match-week five, the respective top-flight outfits reside in the bottom-half of the table, at 15th and 16th respectively.
Both sides have displayed plenty of promise across their opening games, but have failed to combine such performances with a clinical edge to provide a winning result.
With teams starting to lay foundations for their campaigns across the division, victory will be paramount for both squads as they attempt to escape the ominous depths at the bottom of the table.
Team news
Jack Stephens has been ruled out for as many as 12 weeks after damaging his knee tendon against Manchester City last week.
He joins Stuart Armstong on the sidelines, and aside from Stephens Southampton are not expected to make any major changes from the side that secured a point against City.
For Wolves, Pedro Neto and Jonny Castro remain long-term absentees, and are joined by a host of players: Yerson Mosquera, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Hugo Bueno are all sidelined for the foreseeable future.
Hwang Hee-Chan will be pursuing a maiden starting appearance in the Premier League after scoring off the bench on his debut two weeks ago.
Predicted line-ups
Southampton: McCarthy; Livramento, Bednarek, Salisu, Walker-Peters; Elyounoussi, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Redmond; Armstrong, Adams
Wolves: Sa; Kilman, Coady, Saiss; Semedo, Neves, Moutinho, Marcal; Traore, Jimenez, Trincao
Ones to watch
Hwang Hee-Chan
Hee-Chan made an emphatic entrance to the league with a debut goal, and will be desperate to continue to impress for the midlands club.
The wingers energetic energy and apt dribbling ability will surely captivate supporters, and can certainly unlock a sturdy Southampton defence.
Adam Armstrong was sharp throughout against City, proving to be a constant menace to the league champions defence.
Against Wolves, Armstrong will seek to add to his solitary goal for the Saints. He may well find great success against a team still developing under a new, offensive style of play.
Pre-match comments
Following Wolves' penalty defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup, Bruno Lage detailed his thoughts on the performance after drawing in normal time, expressing how areas need refining to reach the desired level.
"I don’t believe in luck, I believe it’s two things, hard work and planning everything well to create that squad I want to create to play like this and win more games for the club."
“We have the power and the strength to turn the game to ourselves, from 2-0 to 2-2, and then we create the better chances to win."
"We are making some mistakes, some individual mistakes, some collective mistakes, and there are things we need to work because every time we conceded easy chances for the opponents to score.
“This is one side and the other side is how we are creating chances to score. The goals are coming. Today they came, two good goals. In the end, I’m happy, but I’m not satisfied with the result because we didn’t go forward in the cup.”
How to watch
The Premier League fixture is available to watch on Sky Sports Main Event / Sky Sport Premier League. Kick-off is at 14:00 BST, and coverage will start an hour prior.