SAINTS welcome relegation-zone entrenched Burnley to St Mary’s off the back of Ralph Hasenhuttl’s first win of the season over Leeds last weekend.
The Austrian boss and his side picked up a first maximum points in matchday eight of the 2021-22 Premier League courtesy of an Armando Broja close-range strike, set up by Nathan Redmond.
Marcelo Bielsa’s outfit were missing a handful of their critical players in Brazilian international Raphinha, Patrick Bamford and Kalvin Phillips.
Burnley, on the other hand, have picked up only three points from their first eight games and are yet to win a fixture themselves.
Hasenhuttl will be without his captain, James Ward-Prowse, who will be back from his suspension for the next Premier League contest at Watford on Halloween weekend, but is still serving his ban for a red card at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge.
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A starring performance from replacement Ibrahima Diallo will have done plenty to settle any nerves surrounding that absence, though, while summer signing Adam Armstrong didn’t feature for a first time at St Mary’s last time out.
Redmond justified his continued selection while Stuart Armstrong, who had been injured since August, made his first minutes of the season replacing Moussa Djenepo with half-an-hour to go.
Aside from defender Jack Stephens, Hasenhuttl has a full squad to choose from – here’s how we think he will line up…
Goalkeeper
Alex McCarthy has been impressive and described as a much better package this season by manager Ralph Hasenhuttl.
Defence
After keeping a third clean sheet of the season during the 1-0 win over Leeds, expect Hasenhuttl to name the same defence. That includes Tino Livramento continuing his run of starting every Premier League game this campaign, shoo-ins Jan Bednarek and Mohammed Salisu and left-back Romain Perraud, who has been in competition with Kyle Walker-Peters.
Midfield
With James Ward-Prowse still out, it leaves Oriol Romeu and Ibrahima Diallo as the guarantees at the base of the midfield. Moi Elyounoussi will retain his place in the Saints side but could switch over to the left as Stuart Armstrong makes his first start of the season. That means Moussa Djenepo dropping out.
Attackers
Chelsea loanee Armando Broja will hopefully have done enough with the winner to convince Hasenhuttl that he should start again despite picking up a minor knock, and it’s the same message (minus the knock) for his strike-partner Nathan Redmond – who put it on a plate for him to score. Adam Armstrong will be disappointed to miss out from the start again, but could play a role from the bench this time around.
Full predicted team:
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