Southampton have delivered some good results lately, but such has been the competition level in the PL this season, that they are barely staying in the top-ten of the table. With the season slowly edging towards its closing stages, it’s important for the team to post some much-needed points on the board.

They will derive confidence from the fact that they have been on a good run at home in the past few weeks.

Meanwhile, Everton had a worrying spell in the top flight for the majority of this season. But fans hope that the arrival of Frank Lampard will turn things around – and the first signs of improvement can already be seen.

As these two desperate squads take on each other at the St. Mary’s Stadium, it’s expected that goals will come from either side of the pitch.
Southampton were held to a 1-1 draw the last match-day, by Manchester United. Their defense has been in such a worrying state that they have not kept a single clean sheet in their past 15 games in a row.

In fact, they had even failed to keep a clean sheet against Coventry in the FA Cup – which was their latest match at home. Note that Coventry are from the lower division.

On the other hand, Everton did win 3-0 at home the past game week, against Leeds. However, they were on a four-game losing streak before that in the league. In fact, they were winless in 15 of their past 18 overall fixtures, and one of these three victories had come against the newly-promoted Brentford.

Taking into account these observations, expect a high-scoring affair this weekend.



译文(自动翻译仅供参考):

南安普顿最近取得了一些不错的成绩，但这是英超本赛季的竞争水平，他们几乎不能保持在前十。随着赛季慢慢接近尾声，对车队来说，在板上张贴一些急需的分数是很重要的。

他们将从过去几周在主场的良好表现中获得信心。

与此同时，埃弗顿本赛季大部分时间都在顶级联赛中表现得令人担忧。但球迷们希望兰帕德的到来能扭转局面，而改善的初步迹象已经显现。

当这两支绝望的球队在圣玛丽体育场对决时，预计双方都会进球。
南安普顿在最后一个比赛日被曼联1:1逼平。他们的防守一直处于一种令人担忧的状态，在过去的15场比赛中，他们没有一场比赛不失球。

事实上，在足总杯对考文垂的比赛中，他们甚至没有保持一球不失球——这是他们最近的一次主场比赛。请注意考文垂是来自较低的等级。

另一方面，埃弗顿在上个星期主场3-0战胜利兹联。然而，在此之前，他们在联盟中有过四连败。事实上，他们在过去的18场比赛中有15场没有赢过，而这三场胜利中有一场是对阵新升的布伦特福德的。

考虑到这些观察结果，预计这周末会有一个高分事件。