Tottenham Hotspur face a crucial trip to St. Mary’s Stadium to face Southampton in a match that they must win — because failure to do so will take them further away from the top four teams in the Premier League, and into a fight for next-best that they desperately want to avoid.
Southampton vs. Tottenham 2016: Start time, live stream, TV schedule, and 3 things to know
Mauricio Pochettino needs to beat his former club in a match that could prove vital to Tottenham’s hopes.
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Southampton have plenty of reasons to want to win this match as well, starting with wanting to get one over on the manager who left them at a crucial moment in the club’s development in 2014. Beating Mauricio Pochettino now, in such a crucial moment for both clubs, would be a massive step in the right direction for the Saints, and one that could help propel them forward in a major and important way at the halfway point in the season.
Either way, a win for one of these teams would be massive and important, meaning that both teams will be going all-out to get the job done. Given the talents on the pitch, that means this match should be a lot of fun.
TV: NBCSN (U.S.), Sky Sports 1/HD (U.K.)
Online: NBC Sports Live (U.S.), Sky Go (U.K.)
Match Date/Time: Wednesday, 2:45 p.m. ET, 7:45 p.m. local
Venue: St. Mary’s Stadium, Southampton, England
Three big things to know
- Neither of these teams have exactly enjoyed the season they were hoping for in the summer. Tottenham have failed to cement themselves as a top-four team in England, and Southampton’s attempt to challenge that elite group has met more speed bumps and road blocks than they would have liked. Still, neither team is that far off from where they wanted to be, and while a win in this match would hardly help them meet their goals, it would go a long ways towards making things look and feel a lot better.
- While Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has been periodically under fire for his team’s lack of consistent quality this season, he’s now set to face his former club while their own manager is having questions asked of just how far he can take his team. Claude Puel, the second manager the Saints have had since Pochettino left for London, hasn’t exactly lived up to his billing as someone who could take Southampton to the next level — though he has finally managed to cobble together a solid run of form of late. A win over the manager his team’s fans still long for would go a ways toward stabilizing things at St. Mary’s Stadium, and would be quite good for the future prospects of Puel’s team.
- The biggest hurdle Southampton are trying to deal with this season is an attack that’s been utterly woeful in its effectiveness. They’ve scored just 17 goals in as many matches, a pace on par with some of the worst teams in the league. Only a stout defense has kept them afloat so far, but they still need to vastly improve things in the final third if they’re going to be a real threat to bigger teams in the EPL this season.
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