Saints V Burnley ! Dan's Preview

Our regular columnist Dan once again brings us his preview of the latest game, this time Sunday's home game against Burnley.

On Sunday, Southampton will play host to Burnley in the Premier League after last week's duties were on an international basis. The main talking point is the possibility of a debut for club-record signing, Sofiane Boufal.
 
Saints have been in very impressive form after recording six-consecutive clean sheets (across the League, Europa League and EFL Cup) for the second season in a row. Winning two of their last three league games Southampton will be coming into this game with confidence despite being away for a week. 
 
Most fans will see this as an easier game because of Burnley’s football being played in the Championship last season and yes, with no disrespect towards Burnley, we should be winning this game, however Burnley will come with confidence after holding on until a late goal for Arsenal denied them a point against the Gunners and a recent win against Watford. 
 
The main man for the visitors to look out is Steven Defour who signed for the Clarets in the Summer and was linked with us at one point before his move to Lancashire. Scoring a great goal against Hull and some impressive performances in midfield will give the visitors some hope on Sunday.
 
After the announcement of his inclusion in training, many fans will likely be asking the question of whether club-record signing, Sofiane Boufal will be making appearance on Sunday. When asked in Friday's press-conference, Claude Puel stated that the Morrocan could feature in his squad.
 
He said: "We will see when he can participate with the squad and perhaps he could start on the bench to feel the team, the game and to take bits from it.  "It’s important that step by step we will give him some game time and we make progress with everything.”  "It is difficult to come back after five months out with just two weeks with his teammates.  "We are seeing many good things from him now on the pitch in the training sessions.”
 
Jay Rodriguez could also feature against his former side after a few weeks out with a groin injury. 
 
Unfortunately, both first-choice full-backs, Cedric and Ryan Bertrand will be unavailable after picking up injuries in the last week.
 
Prediction: I'm fairly confident that we will be able to keep our seventh consecutive clean-sheet on Sunday despite having two major parts of our solid defence unavailable. I don't think we will score lots of goals because Burnley will look to get a point from the game so I'm going to say 2-0 to the red and white!
 
My team: Forster, Martina, Fonte, Van Dijk, Targett, Romeu, Hojbjerg, Davis, Tadic, Redmond, Austin
 
I would love Boufal to start and would play him if he was fully fit but I don’t know what the current situation is with him and would still love to see him play as a substitute on Sunday.

Reports have suggested that Matt Targett won’t be able to play as Ryan Bertrand’s replacement after a minor injury was picked up on international duty and that Sam McQueen is set to make his Premier League debut, I don’t know the details of this however will be all for seeing McQueen play because of the talent in the rest of the defence.

Tadic has been in red-hot form for Serbia and Romeu had a fantastic month. Redmond should take this game as an opportunity to bag a goal or an assist because, despite having multiple good performances, needs a boost with another goal to his name. 

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