Southampton vs Plymouth Prediction: Saints should ease to another home win

In-form Southampton will be targeting a fourth straight victory in the Championship when they welcome Plymouth Argyle to St Mary's on Friday, 29th December.

Saints are closing in on the automatic promotion places and they will be hoping for a repeat of Tuesday's 5-0 rout of Swansea City when they kick off against the Pilgrims at 6pm

Team News

Southampton's Kyle Walker-Peters and Joe Aribo may drop to the bench after playing 90 minutes in their last two matches, while Ryan Fraser scored twice as a substitute against Swansea on Tuesday and is pushing for a start.

Shea Charles returns from suspension, but James Bree, Ross Stewart, Juan Larios and Kamaldeen Sulemana are sidelined.

Plymouth hope to have striker Ryan Hardie back after concussion. Jordan Houghton and Mustapha Bundu will be assessed, but Dan Scarr is available after suspension.

Match Odds

Plymouth have not won any of their 12 away matches in this season's Championship and they are 7/1 to break their duck against 2/7 Southampton at St Mary's, where the draw is 4/1.

Four of the Pilgrims' last five matches have featured Over 3.5 Goals and that can be backed at EVS, while a 1-1 Correct Score, a winning bet in three of Southampton's last eight games, is 10/1.

Southampton To Win To Nil @ 7/5

Plymouth's last three Championship results have been a 3-2 win over Rotherham, a 3-3 draw with Birmingham and a 2-2 draw at Cardiff, but their forwards can expect a tougher time against Southampton.

Only nine of the Pilgrims' 39 league goals this season have been scored away from home and they face a Southampton side gunning for a fifth straight win to nil at home.

Russell Martin's promotion contenders beat Bristol City 1-0, Cardiff 2-0 and Blackburn 4-0 before their 5-0 Boxing Day success against Swansea at St Mary's.

Saints limited the Swans to one shot on target, having also won 1-0 at QPR in their final game before Christmas, and they should be backed to take maximum points and keep a clean sheet against a Plymouth side who are winless on the road this season.

#PickYourPunt - Adam Armstrong First Goalscorer, Southampton/Southampton Half-Time/Full-Time & Over 29.5 Plymouth Booking Points @ 7/1

After winning their last two home games 4-0 and 5-0, Southampton may not need much time to take charge of their clash with Plymouth.

Striker Adam Armstrong scored twice in the first 15 minutes of this month's home victory over Cardiff and, with 12 goals and nine assists in 24 league appearances this term, he should be backed to break the deadlock.

Add the Southampton/Southampton Half-Time/Full-Time selection to the #PickYourPunt bet as Saints have been leading at the break in eight of their last 11 league victories.

Three of Plymouth's last four matches have featured a red card and the visitors may find themselves resorting to rough tactics in a bid to disrupt Southampton's rhythm.

They picked up three yellow cards in their recent 4-0 defeat at leaders Leicester and may well rack up at least 29.5 booking points against another of the Championship's best teams.

Check out the rest of our Football Betting Tips here.