Southampton travel to Burnley in season opener

Burnley welcome Southampton to Turf Moor, in a game which may give each side an early indicator on where they will lie in the coming season.

These sides met in the first game of the season 12 months ago, at St Mary’s as they played out a 0-0 draw when Joe Hart impressed on his debut. Both sides spent much of the season looking over their shoulder, battling relegation.

Whilst Southampton needed a change of manager to galvanise the squad and escape the bottom three, Ralph Hassehuttl took over from Mark Hughes, Burnley stuck with Sean Dyche and reaped the rewards.

Team news

Only Steven Defour is certain to miss the game from the Burnley squad as he’s suffering from a leg injury. Whilst Jack Cork, Robbie Brady, James Tarkowski and Kevin Long are all expected to recover in time for the game.

Southampton have a clean bill of health, deadline day signing Kevin Danso may well make the match-day squad, whilst new signings Moussa Djenepo and Che Adams will almost certainly be involved.

Sean Dyche

Ahead of the game, Dyche spoke about his sides transfer business;

“I think we have made some good signings, albeit not thrashing around the money again.

“The squad has a rounded feel to it and we hope that bodes well with that competitive element in the group.”

Ralph Hassenhuttl

Southampton manager Hassenhuttl is expecting a tough test on the opening day;

“It will be a tough game again. I think in the first game nobody knows exactly how good he is.

“We need a very good mentality, a very good group and this is what we prepare for.”

Head-to-head

Burnley haven’t tasted defeat against Southampton in the last five meetings, with the most recent three of those ending in a draw. The previous two games were won 1-0 by Burnley so goals are not expected in this fixture.

Expected line-ups

Burnley – Pope; Lowton, Mee, Gibson, Taylor; Lennon, Cork, Hendrick, Brady; Rodriguez, Wood

Southampton – Gunn; Valery, Bednarek, Vestegaard, Yoshida, Bertrand; Ward-Prowse, Hojbjerg, Redmond; Adams, Ings