Match Preview
Southampton vrs Fulham
Premier League Match Day 34 24_25 at St Mary's Southampton
Saturday 26th April 2025, KO: 15:00
Referee:
Tony Harrington (Cleveland)
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European-chasing Fulham will endeavour to boost their top-eight hopes when they travel to St Mary's to take on already-relegated Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
Neither team could be separated when they played out a goalless stalemate in the reverse fixture at Craven Cottage four months ago.
Fulham's European aspirations have suffered a major blow in recent weeks as they have lost four of their last six Premier League fixtures, most recently falling to 1-0 and 2-1 defeats to fellow European chasers Bournemouth and Chelsea respectively.
The Cottagers were seemingly on course to return to winning ways in a West London derby against the Blues last weekend, but they let a one-goal lead slip by conceding in the 83rd and 93rd minutes to lose their 11th league game of the season.
Marco Silva felt that the result was "very harsh" on Fulham, but he has acknowledged that his side were "punished" for a poor second-half performance and they subsequently remain ninth in the Premier League table, one point behind Bournemouth in eighth and nine points behind the top seven with five games left to play.
Qualification for next season's Conference League is therefore still up for grabs for Fulham, who head into Saturday's contest with Southampton having won two of their last three Premier League meetings with the Saints, as many as they had in their previous 11 (D5 L4).
However, the Cottagers have lost their last three top-flight away fixtures, as many as in their previous 16 on the road (W8 D5), and two of those three defeats have come on the South Coast against Brighton & Hove Albion (2-1) and Bournemouth (1-0).
Southampton suffered the earliest relegation in Premier League history a fortnight ago, but a point picked up in last weekend's 1-1 draw at West Ham United means they will avoid setting the outright record for the lowest-ever PL points total, as they have now drawn level with the 2007-08 Derby County side (11).
The Saints looked on course to suffer their 27th top-flight defeat of the season until Lesley Ugochukwu netted a 93rd-minute equaliser to cancel out Jarrod Bowen's opener at the London Stadium and secure their sixth away point of the campaign - one more than they have collected at St Mary's (five).
With a place in the 2025-26 Championship now confirmed, Southampton are merely playing for pride, but they still have an outside chance of finishing off the foot of the Premier League table as they sit seven points behind 19th-placed Leicester City, who have also been relegated and will lock horns with the Saints at the beginning of next month.
Simon Rusk has taken interim charge of two Southampton games since the departure of Ivan Juric on April 7, as he did in mid-December following the sacking of Russell Martin, with one of those being the aforementioned 0-0 draw at Fulham - one of just two clean sheets that they have kept all season.
Southampton have conceded a total of 78 PL goals this term, though, just two short of their highest-ever league total (80 in 1971-72), while they are now bidding to avoid becoming the fourth team in PL history to lose at least 14 home matches in the same season after Sunderland (14 in 2002-03 and 2005-06), Huddersfield Town (14 in 2018-19) and Watford (15 in 2021-22).
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Fulham have won two of their last three Premier League games against Southampton (D1), as many as they had in their previous 11 (D5, L4).
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Southampton were unbeaten in 21 home league games against Fulham between 1937 and 2021 (W15, D6), but lost the last one 2-0 in May 2023 - a result that confirmed their relegation from the Premier League.
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Fulham are looking to avoid suffering three consecutive league defeats for the first time since December 2023.
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They could also lose away from home in the Premier League for the fourth time in a row. Two of the previous three away defeats came on the south coast against Brighton and Bournemouth.
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Fulham have conceded a top-flight high of 12 goals from outside the box this season.
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Midfielder Tom Cairney has made 39 substitute appearances in the Premier League since the start of last season, the most of any player.
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Alex Iwobi has scored his highest-ever total of Premier League goals (nine) and goal involvements (14). However, just one of his nine strikes this term has come outside of London.
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The 35 chances Andreas Pereira has created from set-pieces this season is the most of any top-flight player.
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Southampton haven't won at home in the league since beating Everton 1-0 on 2 November.
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They have lost 13 Premier League home games this season, and could become only the fourth club to lose 14 or more after Sunderland (twice), Huddersfield and Watford.
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Saints have scored just three league goals at St Mary's in 2025, while conceding 20.
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Southampton have scored just 24 league goals this season, the lowest in the top four tiers of English football.
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They are the only team yet to score a top-flight goal from outside the box.
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The south coast side have faced an average of 17.6 shots and 6.9 shots on target per game in this season's Premier League, the highest on record (since 2003-04).
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Source Oliver Thomas at SportsMole/BBCSports