The final fixture of this Premier League matchday weekend comes Monday night when Wolverhampton Wanderers host Southampton FC. The visiting Saints enter this one fifth in the table and a win here could put them ahead of Chelsea and behind only Tottenham Hotspur for second in the table.
Wolves are 12th, idling in mid-table just behind Arsenal, so this a match-up of two sides with a lot to prove. Let’s preview
Southampton FC at Wolverhampton Wanderers FYIs
Kickoff- 3 pm ET/8 pm GMT, Monday, Nov 23, Molineux
Online- NBC Sports.com TV- NBCSN
Odds- Wolves win (+125) Southampton win (+220) Draw (+220)
Referee Andre Marriner
Team News
Let’s start with the hosts. Wolves are sweating on the fitness of Conor Coady, who is in isolation after having had a known COVID-19 exposure. Rayan Ait Nouri pulled out of international duty as a precaution, so we’ll see if he’ll be match fit in time for this one.
Jonny (knee) remains missing as a long term injury absentee.
Switching over to Southampton, summer transfer window addition Mohamed Salisu is a doubt, due to an undisclosed reason, but they expect to have James Ward-Prowse back in the fold, with his having recovered from a hamstring injury that kept him out of international duty with England. Ryan Bertrand should be back as well, but scoring sensation Danny Ings (knee) is out.
Now is the chance for Saints to prove that they are not a one man team.
Starting XI Predictions
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Patricio; Boly, Coady, Kilman; Semedo, Dendoncker, Neves, Ait-Nouri; Neto, Podence; Jimenez
Southampton FC
McCarthy; Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Bertrand; Armstrong, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Djenepo; Walcott, Adams
Final Score Prediction: Wolves 2, Saints 1
This should really be a tight match, hard fought, tooth and nail, but I think a market correction/reality check is coming for Southampton.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.