Stoke vs Southampton Prediction: Draw best bet for Potters

Stoke City will look to end their three-game winless run in the Championship when they welcome a misfiring Southampton outfit to the Potteries on Saturday (12:30 GMT, Sky Sports Main Event).

Tonda Eckert has been struggling to get this Saints team going right now, but can they get back to winning ways? Below you can find my Stoke vs Southampton predictions featuring team news and betting tips. 

Team News

Stoke’s goalkeeping nightmare continues as Gavin Bazunu has been ruled out along with first-choice keeper Viktor Johansson. That means young goalkeeper Tommy Simkin will start in goal again, while Mark Robins is also without three defenders in the form of Ben Gibson, Ben Wilmot and Junior Tchamadeu. 

Those issues meant that Maksym Talovierov moved to centre-back against Birmingham and Sorba Thomas volunteered to play right-back. Bosun Lawal is back from suspension, but is a doubt so if no new players return from injury, Robins will be forced to stick with that idea - or come up with another solution. Lewis Baker remains out with an ankle issue.

Southampton have suffered a major blow as Leo Szienza has been ruled out until late February with a groin issue. There’s plenty of transfer speculation surrounding Adam Armstrong, who could be heading to Middlesbrough, so it will be interesting to see if he starts in Stoke.

Football Odds

Today's Football Fixtures

Stoke vs Southampton Odds

Stoke are the marginal outsiders for this lunchtime clash, priced at 15/8 to take the win, while Southampton are 7/5. That gives the visitors an implied win probability of 42% while a draw is available at 23/10.

Over 2.5 goals is 10/11, BTTS is 4/6 and Armstrong remains the favourite to score first at 4/1.

Draw @ 23/10

It feels like both teams have their injury issues right now, and both Stoke and Southampton are struggling to win games right now - so a draw feels like the best bet as we look towards this fixture. Stoke have drawn two of their last three, while Southampton drew 1-1 at Portsmouth last time out, and their two results prior to that was a 1-0 victory over Sheff Utd and a 2-1 defeat to Hull City. 

They are distinctly average this term, and now Leo Scienza is out, I don’t think they are going to provide much of an attacking threat - against one of the best defences in the league. Stoke’s goalkeeping situation isn’t ideal, but I just think these two will cancel each other out. 

Sorba Thomas to score first and 1-1 @ 40/1

I’m hoping Thomas is instilled further high up the pitch again in this one, which could see Stoke’s top scorer get into crucial attacking areas once more. Thomas has scored nine goals for Stoke this term, takes the set pieces and should be able to test this Southampton side. 

I like the look of this scorecast at 40/1. 

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