PREMIER LEAGUE THURSDAY: The Striker previews Thursday’s clash in the Premier League between BURNLEY v SOUTHAMPTON with extended match stats and a recommended BETDAQ bet.

BURNLEY V SOUTHAMPTON

7.45pm We finish off the midweek Premier League action on BETDAQ Betting Exchange with Burnley hosting Southampton on Thursday night. We’re at the stage of the season now when every game is a must win game for Burnley. That win for Everton against Manchester United was a huge blow for them and came just at the wrong time. On paper, not many football fans would have been expecting Everton to beat United but it’s just a reflection of how bad United are at the moment and that’s left Burnley will a lot of work to do.

Everton have a very difficult fixture list to end the season – they play Liverpool and Chelsea in their next two games so Burnley have to keep going. They are in a tough spot at the moment, but there’s a lot of drama ahead before the end of the season. That being said, Burnley simply have to win games like this. With home advantage if you want to stay up, you have to beat Southampton – no disrespect to Southampton but if Burnley lose here and Everton lose to Liverpool at the weekend, Burnley have nobody to blame but themselves.

Burnley have two huge games coming up here this week. We have a very open market here, and we will likely have very similar prices when Burnley meet Wolves here at the weekend. After those two games, Burnley play Watford away and by then they could actually have the chance to go past Everton if results work out in their favour. I don’t expect Everton to pick up anything against Liverpool or Chelsea. The big question here is, are Burnley good enough to win? They have pressed the panic button with the sacking of Sean Dyche. I wouldn’t agree with that decision given he’s been there so long, but they did play well at the weekend in the 1-1 draw against West Ham. Perhaps it was a decision that was needed for the players, and it will be interesting to see what type of performance level we see here.

Both sides have very similar profiles when you look at their home and away form. Burnley have been bang average at home, they have only managed 15 points from 15 games and that’s why they are in the bottom three – I know their away form is even worse but if you’re going to stay up you need to pick up more points at home. Southampton have a similar story away though – just 14 points from 15 games and while this is more acceptable than the Burnley home form, it does highlight that we have two average sides here and that we’re going to have a very close game.

Southampton have had a tough run of fixtures lately having to play Manchester City in the FA Cup and Chelsea in the Premier League. It was understandable they went a while without a win before beating Arsenal at the weekend. They conceded a higher xG figure than they created, but that’s always likely to happen against a bigger side. All their impressive recent performances have come at home though which is an obvious worry. I’m keen to be against Southampton here, but I don’t believe Burnley can do the job. I feel we have two option here – the draw at 3.45 or under 2.5 goals at 1.98. I couldn’t put anyone off either bet, but I’m going to opt for a small bet on the draw at 3.45. I just can’t see past a very close game here.

The Striker Says:
One point win Draw at 3.45 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.

You can view all markets here -> https://betdaq.biz/BurSou

MATCH STATS

● Burnley have lost just one of their six Premier League home games against Southampton (W3 D2), though it did come in this exact fixture last season (0-1).
● Following their 1-0 win at Turf Moor last season, Southampton are looking to pick up back-to-back away league wins against Burnley for just the second time, previously doing so in 2006 and 2007 in the Championship.
● Southampton have lost two of their last three Premier League games against sides in the relegation zone (W1), as many as they had in their previous 14 (W8 D4). However, they’ve not lost consecutive such matches since November 2003.
● Southampton haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their last 13 midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) Premier League games, shipping 35 goals in total in this run (2.7 per game).
● Burnley won their last home league game 3-2 against Everton, scoring more goals in that victory than they had in their previous eight at Turf Moor combined (2). The Clarets haven’t won consecutive home league games since December 2020
● Southampton beat Arsenal 1-0 in their last Premier League game, having conceded 15 goals in their five league games before this (D1 L4). However, Saints have conceded in each of their last 10 away league games (24 goals in total) since a 1-0 win at Watford in October.
● This will be Burnley’s first home league game without Sean Dyche in charge since October 2012, and a 1-0 Championship victory over Blackpool under caretaker Terry Pashley. The last Burnley manager to lose their first home league game with the club was Brian Laws (vs Chelsea in January 2010).
● Maxwel Cornet scored and assisted a goal in Burnley’s 3-2 win against Everton, as many goal involvements as he’d registered in his first nine league games at Turf Moor (2 goals).
● Southampton’s Jan Bednarek has scored four goals in his last 17 Premier League games, more than he had in his first 110 appearances in the competition (3). Three of these strikes have been the first goal of the game, while two of them have proved to be the winning goal in the match.
● Wout Weghorst scored his second Premier League goal for Burnley in their 1-1 away draw with West Ham, with his other goal also coming away from home against Brighton. He’s scored with two of his four shots in away games but failed with all 12 efforts at goal at Turf Moor in the Premier League.