The Premier League champions may have been decided with a couple of weeks to spare but a few of clubs in the Premier League still have a lot more to fight for in the last couple of game weeks this season. In what remains as the most important game for the rest of the league campaign, relegation-threatened sides Southampton and Swansea City face off in what can be termed as a play-off to retain top-flight status next season.
The Saints, who have been in the bottom 3 for quite a while now, moved to the 17th place after picking up five points from the last three games. They were unlucky to drop a couple of points late in the game against Everton at the weekend but will believe that they can get the work done against The Swans on Tuesday.
Swansea City last won a league game against West Ham at the start of the previous month and have lost four of their last six league games and are not in great form, going into this game. But Carlos Carvalhal’s side have been hard to beat and are sure to give the Saints a run for their money.
Playing at home, the Welsh outfit will believe that they can get the better of Southampton, who are level on points with just two games of the season left. Southampton welcome Manchester City to St Mary’s in the last round of the competition and will want to get things done in this round. Swansea face Stoke City in the final game of the season and will believe that even a point in this game will be enough to secure their safety.
So it is up to the visitors to get all three points from this game and here is the team news, predicted lineups, predictions and odds for this crunch clash.
Team News
Swansea City
Leroy Fer, Wilfried Bony and Kyle Naughton are all long-term absentees and might play no role in this clash against Southampton.
Expected lineup (3-4-3): Fabianski; Mawson, Fernandez, Van der Hoorn; Olsson, Carroll, Ki, Roberts; J Ayew, Dyer, A Ayew
Southampton
Mark Hughes will still be without the services of first-team star Steven Davis who is ruled out for the rest of the season. Mario Lemina is back in light training and might just be able to make it to the squad of the final game of the season while Maya Yoshida remains suspended after picking up a red against Everton at the weekend.
Expected lineup (3-4-3): McCarthy; Hoedt, Stephens, Bednarek; Bertrand, Hojbjerg, Romeu, Soares; Redmond, Tadic, Austin
Odds
Swansea City – 15/8
Draw – 11/5
Southampton – 6/4
Prediction
Swansea City 0-0 Southampton
