Burnley welcome Southampton to Turf Moor on Saturday for their first home game of the new Premier League season.
Both teams are still searching for their first points of the 2020-21 campaign, with Burnley losing at Leicester City in their belated opener and Southampton having lost two from two so far.
Match preview
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In a record-breaking weekend of Premier League goalscoring, these two teams were among the hardest hit last time out as Burnley shipped four at Leicester and Southampton were 5-2 losers at home to Tottenham Hotspur.
For both, it constituted a poor start to the campaign in the league, although Burnley have had more reason for cheer elsewhere with that defeat being sandwiched by wins over Sheffield United and Millwall in the EFL Cup.
The Clarets' reward for the latter - a 2-0 triumph at The Den on Wednesday night - could be a fourth-round showdown with holders Manchester City next week, but Sean Dyche will be far more focused on getting off the mark in the league for now.
Stretching back to last season, Burnley have now lost back-to-back league games for the first time since January, having only lost one of their previous 15 top-flight outings prior to that.
Dyche will be hoping that a return to Turf Moor, where they beat Southampton 3-0 on the opening day of last season, will spark a return to winning ways, although they were beaten by Brighton & Hove Albion in their last home league game.
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Southampton arrive in Lancashire with a poor recent record against their hosts, having lost home and away to them last season and failed to win any of their last seven Premier League meetings.
Indeed, you have to go back to 1974 for Southampton's last top-flight win away to Burnley, although that defeat in the corresponding fixture last term was an exception to an otherwise impressive away record for the Saints throughout 2019-20.
Ralph Hasenhuttl may be reminding his side of that turnaround after they were beaten at Crystal Palace on the opening day of this season too, although the Saints are in growing need of a first win if the Austrian boss is to avoid pressure growing once again.
Southampton have lost all three of their competitive outings so far this season and were carved open by the Harry Kane and Son Heung-min partnership against Tottenham in their first home game last weekend.
That result was by no means on a par with the 9-0 humiliation they suffered at home to Leicester City last term, but heavy defeats at St Mary's are certainly not the way for Southampton to improve on last season's overall showing, when it was only their away form which saved them from a relegation scrap.
One of the ways to do that will be to improve their ability to hold on to leads; Southampton have thrown away a league-high 37 points from winning positions since Hasenhuttl took charge in December 2018.
Burnley Premier League form: L
Burnley form (all competitions): WLW
Southampton Premier League form: LL
Southampton form (all competitions): LLL
Team News
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Burnley are expected to be boosted by the return of James Tarkowski at the heart of the defence after the centre-back narrowly missed out on his first appearance of the season against Millwall in midweek.
The in-demand defender could take the place of Jimmy Dunne, despite the Irishman's goal on his Premier League debut last weekend.
The Clarets are still missing a number of key men through injury, though, with Jack Cork, Ben Mee and Johann Berg Gudmundsson definitely sidelined.
Jay Rodriguez was forced off early against Millwall and is not expected to recover in time for this match, meaning that Matej Vydra could lead the line alongside Chris Wood following his goal at The Den.
Wood, incidentally, is looking to score in a fifth consecutive Premier League game - something no Burnley player has ever managed before.
Ashley Barnes is still working his way back to fitness after injury, while last weekend Robbie Brady exacerbated a rib problem he picked up on international duty so he remains doubtful too.
The visitors have a much cleaner bill of health, although Nathan Redmond remains a doubt due to ankle ligament damage.
Summer signing Mohammed Salisu could be included in some capacity as he continues to work his way up to match fitness following his arrival at the club.
Danny Ings got his tally for the season up and running with a brace in the Spurs defeat, including scoring the opening goal in a Premier League game for the 11th time since the beginning of last term - more than any other player in the competition.
Burnley possible starting lineup:
Pope; Bardsley, Tarkowski, Long, Taylor; Pieters, Westwood, Brownhill, McNeil; Vydra, Wood
Southampton possible starting lineup:
McCarthy; Walker-Peters, Stephens, Vestergaard, Bertrand; Armstrong, Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Djenepo; Adams, Ings
We say: Burnley 1-1 Southampton
Both sides will be desperate to get off the mark this season following a poor start, and we can see them earning a point apiece from this contest.
Burnley's injury problems leave Dyche with a threadbare squad, but that rarely affects the way they play and they will likely be difficult to beat again for a Southampton side finding wins hard to come by at the moment.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting over 1.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Over 1.5:curlVideo prediction
Watch the Sports Mole Football Shorts prediction for this game below:
Barney Corkhill
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Southampton win with a probability of 42.91%. A win for Burnley had a probability of 31.06% and a draw had a probability of 26%.
The most likely scoreline for a Southampton win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.47%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.89%) and 0-2 (7.52%). The likeliest Burnley win was 1-0 (8.62%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.37%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 10.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for Southampton in this match.
