Kick-off: 1730, 04/03/2023
Stadium: St Mary’s Stadium
TV: Sky Sports
The term home advantage can be ignored when Southampton entertain Leicester in Saturday’s crucial Premier League encounter.
Saints have only claimed one of their five wins at this venue and the Foxes have a good record when visiting teams in the bottom half of the table.
City have already won away to Wolves, Everton, West Ham and Aston Villa and get the nod to prevail here at 17/10 for our first Southampton vs Leicester prediction.
Saints stuck in bottom spot
Basement dwellers Southampton failed to build on a surprise success at Chelsea when beaten 1-0 by fellow strugglers Leeds in Yorkshire.
That made it five defeats in six top-flight fixtures and left Saints four points from safety, while they also suffered an embarrassing 2-1 home loss to League Two Grimsby in the FA Cup on Wednesday.
Gavan Holohan converted two penalties for the Mariners at St Mary’s following blunders from Lyanco and Duje Caleta-Car.
Saints boss Ruben Selles rued the costly moments of madness, stating: “I am very disappointed with the performance and the result.
“It’s just difficult when you concede those type of penalties. It was not good enough from us. Both penalties were very, very frustrating. We should not allow that to happen.”
Unfortunately, Southampton seem to buckle under the pressure of playing in front of their own fans, losing five straight league games at this venue.
The last three were all by the narrowest of margins but came against other bottom-half outfits in Nottingham Forest, Villa and Wolves.
Looking at the Southampton vs Leicester odds, that points us towards 16/5 for an away win by exactly one goal.
Last Saints EPL line-up: Bazunu, Maitland-Niles, Perraud, Bednarek, Kotchap, Ward-Prowse, Armstrong, Sulemana, Elyounoussi, Lavia, Onuachu.
Che Adams is available after missing the last three matches with a knock. Mohammed Salisu is also in contention but young full-backs Tino Livramento and Juan Larios remain unavailable.
Iheanacho firing for Foxes
Leicester are still far from safe after back-to-back league defeats left them just three points above the drop zone.
However, the Foxes showed some encouraging signs in those losses to third-placed Manchester United and leaders Arsenal.
Brendan Rodgers took the blame for Tuesday’s FA Cup exit at the hands of Blackburn after making changes for that fifth-round tie.
Kelechi Iheanacho came off the bench to pull a goal back for City, but they couldn’t find another strike and crashed out 2-1.
“It wasn’t good enough,” Iheanacho told the club website. “If you don’t do what you need to do, you get punished.
“Obviously, that’s gone now, we need to look forward to the Premier League, but we need to do more.”
On the plus side, Leicester beat Villa and Tottenham in top-flight fixtures last month, scoring four goals in each game.
Iheanacho hit the target in both of those wins and the Nigeria international has now netted in five games since the turn of the year.
Let’s add 7/2 for him to score again in an away victory to our Southampton vs Leicester betting tips, along with 9/1 for the visitors to prevail 2-1.
Last Leicester EPL line-up: Ward, Faes, Souttar, Kristansen, Castagne, Dewsbury-Hall, Ndidi, Praet, Barnes, Iheanacho, Tete.
James Maddison is poised to return after illness but Youri Tielemans (ankle), Jonny Evans (thigh) and James Justin (Achilles) remain out.
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