Southampton vs Everton Prediction: Calvert-Lewin can strike against the Saints

Southampton welcome Everton to St Mary's on Saturday (15:00) in the Premier League, still searching for their first win of the season. The Saints were surprisingly just beaten by the one goal at Manchester City last weekend, but it still doesn't help Russell Martin as he appears to be fighting for his job.

Everton salvaged a late draw at home with Fulham last time out to extend their unbeaten run in the league to five matches. Read on for my Southampton vs Everton prediction, alongside the latest match odds and team news.

Southampton vs Everton Odds

Southampton are 8/5 or a 38.5% chance, to pick up their first win of the campaign. Everton are valued at the same price to take the three points. The draw can be backed at 9/4 (30.8%).

Both teams to score is on offer at 8/13 and over 2.5 goals is marketed at 4/5.

Football Odds

Team News

Southampton remain without the services of Gavin Bazunu, Ross Stewart and Will Smallbone due to injury. Martin and his staff will need to assess duo Flynn Downes and Charlie Taylor ahead of the weekend after both have experienced their own physical issues of late.

As that first win continues to elude his side, Martin could be tempted to freshen things up again in attack.

For Everton, Tim Iroegbunam, Youssef Chermiti and Armando Broja are all still out of action with foot injuries, while James Garner is seeing a specialist about a back problem, so he is also ruled out.

Dwight McNeil was forced off late on against Fulham last weekend and hasn't featured in training this week, and so he is a doubt to feature here.

Jarrad Branthwaite made his second appearance of the season from the bench against Fulham last time out to get some minutes under his belt. The defender will be pushing to start again, but after a minor injury setback after overcoming a groin problem that hampered his start to the season, manager Sean Dyche is unlikely to rush the young Englishman back.

Michael Keane should continue partnering James Tarkowski for the time being, with Vitaliy Mykolenko and Ashley Young supporting as full-backs.

Abdoulaye Doucoure and Idrissa Gueye are expected to partner each other in midfield again, with Jordan Pickford undroppable in goal. McNeil, Jack Harrison and Iliman Ndiaye should operate behind forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin, but Beto will be pushing to lead the line after his goal salvaged a point against the Cottagers last weekend.

Everton to win @ 7/4

Everton have been improving over the past few weeks, which they simply needed to do after letting two-goal leads slip against both AFC Bournemouth and Aston Villa earlier in the campaign.

The objective for Dyche and his players once again will be to stay in the division. They are doing well to give themselves some breathing space from the bottom three at the moment as they sit five points clear of Ipswich Town in 18th.

Their unbeaten run has been impressive but they will want to start picking up more wins so that they can start to pull away. This game gives them the perfect opportunity to collect their third win of the campaign.

Southampton are devoid of confidence as they continue to scramble for points of any kind, with the Saints managing just one point from their opening nine matches. For the Toffees, these are the kind of games they simply have to win to avoid being sucked into another relegation scrap, and with the form the hosts are in, they should be able to deliver a winning performance on Saturday.

McNeil has been the main man this term, but they are certainly in need of more goals from Calvert-Lewin, whose inconsistency has plagued his Goodison Park career just as much as his injuries.

Even he will be rubbing his hands together to face a side that have shipped 19 goals already this season, and he will be hoping he can profit to bag his third league goal of the season and his first in almost two months.

Dyche's back line has been steadily improving after their manic start to the season, and with the Saints just managing six goals so far, they will be fancying themselves to register their third clean sheet in 2024/25.

Regardless, I think the Toffees should have more than enough to pick up a valuable three points away from home on the south coast this weekend.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin anytime goalscorer @ 2/1

Everton certainly need their striker to start scoring more goals if they are to pull away from any relegation trouble this year, and with McNeil likely out for this encounter, more responsibility will be on Calvert Lewin's shoulders at Southampton.

There is clearly a talent there, he just tends to struggle for consistency and as a result, confidence. However, he is about to come up against a team who are collectively low on confidence as they are yet to pick up more than a single point in the Premier League this campaign.

Southampton have conceded 19 goals already, so their defence is particularly vulnerable. Calvert-Lewin can try to capitalise on that with his bursting runs off the shoulder, so I am backing him to bounce back with an important goal at St Mary's.

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