Our prediction for this Premier League match:
Southampton and Chelsea square off against each other at St. Mary’s Stadium on day 32 of the current Premier League campaign. Chelsea failed to impress in a 4-1 loss to Brentford, but despite the defeat, they are still on the right track to make it to the Champions League. Romelu Lukaku is widely expected to return to the starting XI, as well as fit-again full back Reece James. Both Ben Chilwell and Callum Hudson-Odoi should miss out with injuries for the capital club.
The Saints, on the other hand, collected only one point in total from the previous four league fixtures. Since Southampton have little to play for in the season finale, we are tempted to put our money on Thomas Tuchel’s men, who are eyeing a top-four finish. As for the home side, Lyanco remains in the recovery room, while Armando Borja is ineligible to face his parent club.
Highlighted Player (Theo Walcott):
![Theo Walcott](https://footballpredictions.com/wp-content/plugins/fp-highlights/imageid/player/5125014.png)
Theo James Walcott is an English football player with roots from Jamaica born on 16th of March 1989 in London. Walcott started his football career for AFC Newbury and after scoring over 100 goals in his first season Southampton signed the young Walcott. After 2 seasons playing for the Saints scoring 4 goals in 21games Arsenal transferred Walcott to London for approximately 12 million GBP where he signed a 1 million GBP per year contract by the age of 17.
Walcott is known for being a very fast right-winger but is able to play as a striker as well. Walcott can be used very effectively to set up a counter attack but is the type of offensive player that is very dependant on the rest of the team.
Despite his young age Walcott made his debut for the English national team in May 2006 and played for over 40 games in the national team already. One of Walcott’s biggest weaknesses are his height (only 173cm) and the fact he get’s injured very quickly. Walcott won the FA Cup in 2013/2014 and 2014/15 with Arsenal and the Community Shield in 2015. During the World Cup in 2014 Walcott was injured.
Highlighted Team (Chelsea):
![Chelsea](https://footballpredictions.com/wp-content/plugins/fp-highlights/imageid/team/630.png)
Over the years Chelsea have established themselves as one of the dominant forces in the English Premier League. Roberto Di Matteo helped the team win their first ever Champions League trophy (2011/2012), but it has to be noted that they were more than fortunate to beat Bayern Munich in the title game.
Chelsea have been playing at Stamford Bridge since 1876 and they are a real force to be reckoned with at home. The Blues have won seven FA Cups, five League Cups, two UEFA Cup Winners’ Cups and the UEFA Europa League. Rafael Benitez was in charge of the team that faced Benfica in the 2012/2013 Europa League final, with Branislav Ivanovic scoring the winner for the Blues in the title clash.
After lifting the 2014/2015 Premier League trophy, the Blues largely struggled in the next campaign, which saw Jose Mourinho’s second spell with the club come to an end, and Antoine Conte went over to take the reigns for the 2016/2017 season.