Saturday's match sees the meeting of the two teams seen by the
bookies as 'The best of the Rest' outside the top 7 (time will tell if Everton's Europa League campaign means they get dragged back in to the 'others' as opposed to those chasing Champions League places).
Southampton are a bit like Swansea in that to outside observers this season might have appeared to be one in which they would struggle but look deeper and there's still a good team there. I've always had a soft spot for Southampton, not least because of Matt Le Tissier and
this piece on his goal v Newcastle in 1993 is fantastic.
Southampton (along with Liverpool) have conceded the fewest shots per game (8.25: 33 from 4 games), within that there's games against Shot-Shy West Ham (4 Shots) and the more attack minded Liverpool (12 shots), but looking at the shot map of chances conceded suggests a decent defensive display so far this season:
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| Southampton have only conceded 3 goals in their 4 league games to date |
At the other end, Southampton have scored 8 from 34 shots so far including 4 in a thrashing of Newcastle:
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| Southampton League Shot Chart |
Looking at Southampton's shot chart, there's quite a bit of activity at the edge of the 6-yard box, delving deeper a fair bit of that is due to headers, with 8 of their shots (and 1 goal) coming this way.
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| Southampton's Cluster of Headed shots - possibly an area to watch |
Where Southampton have a lot of activity close in, Swansea's chances have tended to be a bit further out, although a number of them have been the result of through balls to create 1v1s:
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| Swansea Shots - JT own goal not included. |
Although I'm hoping for an exciting game, unless there's a goal in the first 20 minutes I can see this being quite a cagey match with both sides happy with a point. I'd expect both teams to finish somewhere between 8th-12th but good results in matches like this could give hope that 7th isn't out of reach.
For more on the game - injury news/projected lineups check out
The Swansea Way
Other Posts: Premier league Shot Location, World Cup Shot Location , World Cup Distance + Sprint Stats
Twitter: @we_r_pl http://www.twitter.com/we_r_pl
Match Stats: Created using Statszone , Whoscored and Squawka
