Next Saturday, 13th of December 2014, a somewhat fragilized Southampton will travel to Turf Moor to measure forces with a Burnley side in need of points for round 16 of the English Premier League, on a match where the Saints will certainly look to make some amendments on their recent poor streak of results.

Southampton conceded their fifth defeat of the season when they entertained Manchester United last Monday night at St. Mary’s Stadium, thus continuing the poor form they have been showing recently. Three consecutive defeats at the hands of both Manchester giants and Arsenal have certainly curved the ambition and motivation levels the Saints’ had displayed before that set of matches. The experienced Dutch manager, Ronald Koeman, was surely fearing that a situation such as this might happen and he is certainly already planning a strong comeback at one of the most interesting teams at the English Premier League this season. On their last match against United, Southampton were, generally speaking, overall far more dangerous than their rivals but they managed to score once from their 15 goals attempts. The Saints also had more ball possession but for some reason they found themselves trapped under United’s poisoning counter-attacks.

Their upcoming match against Burnley will not be easy by any means, regardless of the fact that their opponents are deep down at the league table. For that particular clash, Ronald Koeman will probably still not be able to rely on the contribution of Schneiderlin, Warde-Prowse, Jay Rodriguez and Cork, all of them sidelined due to injury.

As for Burnley, the Clarets took a huge blow on their confidence levels after their defeat at Loftus Road against QPR. Before that match, Burnley were enjoying from a very positive streak of results without a single defeat in four matches. The Clarets had several goal chances, even more than their opponents, but they failed to materializel those attempts into goals and ended up by conceding the seventh defeat of the season.

For the important clash against the Saints next Saturday, Burnley’s manager Sean Dyche will not be able to count on Ward, Vokes and Chalobah, all currently sidelined due to injury.

Despite Southampton’s less impressive moment, they are firm favourites for Turf Moor’s clash next Saturday, but they will certainly need to dig deep if they want to snatch the three points.

Burnley

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WDWLW

Southampton

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - LLDWW

Possible Line-ups

Burnley (4-4-2) –Heaton - Trippier - Keane - Shackell - Mee - Boyd - Marney - Jones - Arfield -  Ings - Barnes

Southampton (4-3-3) - Forster - Clyne - Fonte - Aldewereld - Bertrand - Wanyama - Davis - Mane - Tadic - Long - Pelle

Prediction

Burnley 1 Southampton 2