Next Saturday, 17th of January 2015, the super Southampton will travel north to measure forces with Newcastle at St. James’ Park for round 22 of the English Premier League, on a match where the visitors will most surely try the extend their excellent recent streak and clinch their fifth win on their last six league clashes.

Last weekend, the Saints managed to cause Manchester United a major upset at Old Trafford by winning the match 1-0 thanks to a second-half goal by the skillful Serbian playmaker Dusan Tadic. Contrary to what the Red Devils’ manager, Louis Van Gaal, claimed over the past few days, Southampton deserved their win as they proved to be fairly more consistent and organized than Manchester United. Ronald Koeman, who is by the way doing an excellent job at helm of the Saints so far, prepared an excellent counter-attack strategy to overcome United’s defensive frailties, which ended up by working marvelously. Although United have enjoyed from plenty more ball possession, the number of goal chances created by both teams were almost the same.

The last time Southampton was defeated was in the middle of December at Sheffield United for the Capital One Cup. That sour defeat served Southampton as a wake-up call from the numbness they were drowning themselves in and from that moment on they won four of the six matches in which they took part, including wins over Arsenal and Manchester United and a home draw against the EPL leaders, Chelsea.

Although their upcoming opponents are probably not going through the best of times, Southampton will need to pull rank if they want to leave St. James’ Park with the three points. For that particular clash, Ronald Koeman is not yet certain if he will be able to rely on the contribution of Alderweireld, Mane, Cork and Jay Rodriguez, all currently sidelined due to injury.

As for Newcastle, they are no more than an adrift vessel on the troubled waters of the EPL, especially since the departure from Alan Pardew. The Magpies have not yet appointed a new manager and their recent performances and results have been far from exciting. After a painful defeat against Leicester for the FA Cup, Newcastle also didn’t manage to take something positive from their travel to Stamford Bridge, where they were defeated by the league leaders, Chelsea.

Given Newcastle’s current situation and Southampton’s excellent moment, it is fair to say that the Saints are firm favourites to win the upcoming match.

Newcastle

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LLDWL

Southampton

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - WDWDW

Possible Line-ups

Newcastle (4-2-3-1) – Krul - Janmaat - Coloccini - Williamson - Dummett- Anita - Colback - Gouffran - Sissoko - Cabella - Perez

Southampton (4-3-3) - Forster - Clyne - Fonte - Gardos - Bertrand - Wanyama - Davis - Schneiderlin - Tadic - Elia - Pelle

Prediction

Newcastle 1 Southampton 2