Southampton v Tottenham preview: Mauricio Pochettino returns to St Mary's

Mauricio Pochettino returns to his former club Southampton for the first time since leaving for Tottenham last summer.

With just five games remaining and a seven-point gap separating them from the top four, Pochettino knows a Champions League spot is now beyond the north London club.

Victory at St Mary's, though, would move Spurs ever closer to a return to the Europa League after a disappointing run in the competition this season.

But this weekend is arguably Saints' biggest match of their season with just a point and a place separating Ronald Koeman's men from Spurs in sixth.

Team news

Southampton manager Koeman is confident of being able to call upon Toby Alderweireld.

The Belgium defender left the field on a stretcher at Stoke last week with what the Saints boss said was a "dislocated shoulder", yet he is in line to feature against Spurs on Saturday.

Victor Wanyama (suspension) and Filip Djuricic (ankle) remain absent as do Fraser Forster, Jay Rodriguez and Emmanuel Mayuka. Sam Gallagher will not feature, despite scoring the winner in Monday's U21 Premier League Cup final.

Hugo Lloris' knee injury will be assessed ahead of Tottenham's trip to the south coast.

The France goalkeeper has been out for three matches since sustaining the injury against Leicester but could return.

Right-back Kyle Walker is out for four more weeks after suffering a foot injury against Burnley last month and could miss the rest of the season.

Opta Stats

Southampton have allowed fewer shots on target against them than any other team in the Premier League (93).

Tottenham have won their last five Premier League games against Southampton after losing four of the preceding five meetings.

Christian Eriksen has scored three goals in three Premier League games against Saints.

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Robbie Fowler (twice) and Chris Sutton are the only two players to reach 20 goals in a Premier League season at a younger age than Harry Kane has this term.

Southampton have both scored (4 per cent) and conceded (8 per cent, level with Liverpool) the lowest proportion of headed goals this season.

If only second-halves of Premier League games counted this season, Saints would be second in the table behind only Chelsea.

Southampton have scored just eight goals in their last 11 Premier League matches.

Merson's Predictions

I'm going to go for a Southampton win. They haven’t been on the best of runs, but I think they’ll beat Tottenham at home. They need to pick up their results.

Southampton had a disappointing result last week at Stoke, while Tottenham had a good win at Newcastle, but I’m just going to go with the Saints here.

PAUL PREDICTS: 2-1 (Sky Bet odds 15/2)

Betting

Southampton are Sky Bet's 21/20 favourites to maintain their push for a top six finish with victory over 5/2 shots Tottenham. The Saints are 8/11 to make the top six in Ronald Koeman’s first season in charge with Tottenham even money. Mauricio Pochettino's men have had the better of his former club in recent meetings including a 1-0 victory at White Hart Lane back in October. Christian Eriksen scored the only goal on that occasion and a repeat scorecast is available at 55/1, while the Danish midfielder is a 6/1 shot to score in a Spurs win. The Saints have won their last three matches at St Mary's to nil and are 5/2 to extend that run. Graziano Pelle is 15/8 to net in a home win, while a repeat of last season's 3-2 win for the visitors is priced at 40/1.

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