On Saturday afternoon, Southampton will aim to return to winning ways.
After losing to Liverpool in the FA Cup on Wednesday night, the Saints have now dropped their previous three games in all competitions.
More concerningly, Russell Martin’s team has now lost three of its last four Championship games. As a result, they now sit fourth in the standings, five points outside of the spots that guarantee promotion.
The pressure on Southampton to win promotion back to the Premier League has increased as a result.
The Saints’ next game is a Saturday afternoon trip to St Andrew’s to play Birmingham City.
It appears that one analyst thinks they will barely be able to win that game and go back on track.
David Prutton anticipates a close victory for Southampton on Saturday.
Like their visitors, Birmingham City also find themselves in a challenging position, albeit at the other end of the table.
Last week saw Blues lose 3-1 at Ipswich Town. That has left them 18th in the standings, just three points clear of the relegation zone.
Prutton now seems to think Southampton will almost certainly take advantage of that when the two teams play this coming Saturday.
The former Southampton midfielder discussed the match in his weekly predictions piece for Sky Sports, writing:
Birmingham gave it a strong fight last weekend in Ipswich, but they were just defeated. They might feel a little nervous because there are now just three points separating them from the bottom three.
In relation to feeling tense… As the weekend approaches, Southampton has dropped three of its last four games and is five points behind Leeds. They should put the wheels back on before getting to St Andrew’s because it appears like they may have taken off at the incorrect moment. They will essentially resume their winning ways, in my opinion.
Prutton has therefore projected that the Saints will defeat Birmingham City 2-1 on Saturday.
The Saints must prevail.
It is imperative that Southampton defeat their hosts this coming Saturday.
It will be more difficult for them to recover from this slump in form the longer it lasts.
But this is surely a chance for them to return to the task of inning all three points.
Last Saturday, Birmingham City faltered and were without manager Tony Mowbray in the dugout due to his medical issues.
Southampton might be able to take advantage of the fact that it might be making things more difficult for the Blues on the field.
In fact, given that one of their competitors for promotion, Ipswich Town, was able to accomplish that last week, it might be imperative that the Saints accomplish the same here on Saturday in order to stay ahead in that match.
Southampton also played well on Wednesday night, posing challenges for Liverpool in the FA Cup. In fact, Jurgen Klopp himself praised them for that.
They ought to have enough to win by a welcome three points if they can repeat that performance.
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