As the season comes to a close, can Southampton cement a top half finish with a win over Manchester United, at 7.45pm on Sky Sports 1?

United are now trapped in 6th place – worse than what Louis van Gaal managed last season – with an unshrinkable 7 point gap between them and 5th place Arsenal, and a 4 point buffer keeping 7th place Everton at bay. Southampton, however, could still shift about, dependent on their performance this evening and against Stoke on Sunday.



Best case scenario is that they remain in 8th place, a position they are unable to improve on due to the 16 point moat separating them from Everton. Worst case scenario they end up in 11th, overtaken by West Brom, Bournemouth and Leicester. Of course all this is dependent on how those other teams perform, with the Foxes actually hosting the Cherries on the final day of the season.

So, despite all evidence to the contrary, Wednesday’s game isn’t a complete waste of time. It also provides an opportunity for Claude Puel to give Charlie Austin – who, embarrassingly, is still the Saints’ top scorer, sitting at a Super Mega PGM of 28-34 – his first run out since the end of last year.

As for Jose Mourinho’s lot, this trip down south is just a sideshow on the road to Europa League final against Ajax at the end of the month. It remains to be seen if the grumpy Portuguese manager was right to gamble everything on winning the continent’s second tier club competition. Even if he was it doesn’t excuse their league form, with 2 draws and 2 losses in their last 4 games (admittedly that period did include trips to Man City, Arsenal and Tottenham).

They’ve also struggled up front since Ibrahimovic got injured. Since then United have scored just 6 times; Rooney has benefited most from the Big Swede’s absence, scoring 3 goals in the league to sit at a Super Mega PGM of 17-21.

It seems that United have completely checked out of the league already. Combine that with a slightly greater sense of urgency for the hosts and a home win could be on the cards, Spreadex offering a Southampton/Manchester United Goal Supremacy spread of 0-0.2 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.4-2.6.