Southampton v Watford: Premier League – live!

36 min: Holebas is up and about again. The break in play for his treatment leads to a lull.

34 min: A break in play as Ward-Prowse and Holebas collide and roll about injured. Holebas appears to have come off worse; he looks genuinely pained, while Ward-Prowse springs back up again quickly.

32 min: Hughes dinks a pass down the right to release Deulofeu. Where’s Bertrand? Deulofeu would be in on goal, but takes a poor touch to the right. So instead of shooting he crosses towards Sarr. McCarthy does well to tip the cross away from the striker, who was preparing to bundle the ball home. The resulting corner comes to nothing. Watford could be out of sight, three goals clear, quite easily. The small margins.

30 min: Hughes swings the free kick deep. Sarr, brimful with confidence, meets the dropping ball and sends a volley towards the bottom left. McCarthy does extremely well to save the day by sticking out a strong leg. So close to a second for the Hornets.

29 min: Saints faff about with the ball in the midfield, and allow Deulofeu, Sarr and Hughes to make merry down the left flank. They earn a cheap foul, and here’s another chance to load the Saints box and kick off some trouble for the home side.

27 min: Redmond races down the left into a bit of space. But there are five Watford defenders lined up across the front of the box, and it’s hard to pick a pass. Eventually the ball’s scooped towards Ings, who sends a looping header straight at Foster. The Watford keeper hasn’t had to make a serious intervention yet.

25 min: Southampton do not like playing at St Mary’s, do they. Yes, I miss the Dell too. Saints try to bounce back immediately, forcing a corner down the left, but Ward-Prowse can’t beat the first man when taking the set piece.

Yep, a jittery shambles all right. Femenia lumps the ball down the right for Sarr. Stephens should intercept, but only manages to help the ball into the path of Sarr, allowing Watford’s new striker to advance clear on goal. He draws McCarthy and lashes the ball past him. A smattering of boos from the home fans.

22 min: McCarthy diddles the pressing Deulofeu with a cute change of feet … then the cheers turn to jeers as he passes the ball straight out of play, nowhere near his full-back Cedric. Saints are a jittery shambles at the back, though the team are enjoying the bulk of possession, twice as much as their opponents. So it’s swings and roundabouts.

21 min: … Doucoure sends a soft header into the arms of McCarthy.

20 min: Sarr turns Cedric this way and that, and earns himself a corner. From which …

18 min: Ward-Prowse, out on the right, plays a crossfield ball towards absolutely nobody. As it flies into the stand, the away fans cheer sarcastically, while the home support begins to grumble, curse, eff and jeff.

17 min: Cedric looks long for Ings. The striker flicks a header on, but neither Redmond nor Obafemi are on the same wavelength, and there goes possession.

15 min: Deulofeu swings it in. Saints half clear. Watford come back at the hosts through Holebas on the left. There’s a game of head tennis in the box, and then Femenia shoots wide from the penalty spot. The flag had gone up for offside anyway, but Saints were all over the shop there.

14 min: Sarr is blocked by Bednarek has he attempts to scoot down the right wing. A free kick, and a chance for Watford to load the box.

13 min: Saints press Watford hard. Hojberg wins possession and slips Redmond away down the left. The flag goes up for offside, a hair-trigger decision. Redmond looked on, just, and would have been making his way towards the Watford area with extreme prejudice.

12 min: Cedric plays long down the inside-right channel, looking for Ings. It’s not a bad idea, but Foster is out quickly and claims on the edge of his box.

10 min: Saints knock it around the back awhile, establishing a semblance of control.

8 min: Redmond drives in from the left and rides a half-hearted Capoue challenge. When he reaches the edge of the D, he sends a powerful curler towards the top right. A highly decent effort, but one anticipated by Foster, who gathers without fuss.

7 min: Masina slides in recklessly on Obafemi. Referee Michael Oliver keeps his cards in his pocket, but lectures the Watford defender with great feeling. Next one yellow.

6 min: McCarthy plays a loose pass out to Cedric, who should nevertheless take up possession but lets the ball run out of play. A chance for Watford to fling the ball into the box from the throw. They don’t take it, but that’s not the point: Saints are looking extremely shaky at the back, their collective lack of confidence writ large.

4 min: Hojbjerg is much more assured up the other end, chesting down a loose ball on the edge of the Watford box and lashing a Le Tissieresque rasper just over the bar. It could easily be 1-1 already.

2 min: Saints nearly shoot themselves in the foot early doors. Cedric passes back down his right flank to Hojbjerg, who plays a blind pass inside … straight to Sarr! The striker tears into a huge hole in the middle of the Saints defence, but shoots straight at McCarthy from the edge of the box. What a let-off for Southampton, whose home form is appalling.

And we’re off! Saints get the ball rolling. The ball’s launched long by Stephens, then shanked straight out of play by Mariappa. The only way is up.

The teams are out! Southampton are in their red and white stripes, while Watford play in second-choice blue. We’ll be off at a shivering St Mary’s before you know it! A quick reminder that the draw for Euro 2020 will be made while this game is on. You can keep an eye on that with Will Unwin’s live blog. But don’t go leaving us for good, now. Promise?

Quique Sánchez Flores speaks! “It is very similar to our match at Norwich. Both teams with necessities. We need to win. We will try to repeat the good performances away against Tottenham and Norwich, when we were focused and concentrating well. We will try to be quicker than Southampton and more clinical in the last third.”

The Tonight Show with Ralph Hasenhüttl: “The most positive thing about the 2-2 draw at Arsenal was that we were on the front foot and really aggressive. It was an OK game for us. Today will be different, Watford will not build up so much from the ground, so more long balls. But we have shown we can handle this. We are conceding early goals at home and it makes things difficult. We have to change this behaviour. This is our goal for today: start in a different way. Every Premier League game is difficult, but we have a chance to take points against opponents who are near to us in the table. It is an important period of the season, and the last game against Arsenal was a small step in the right direction.”

One change to the Southampton team named at Arsenal last week. The injured Stuart Armstrong (hamstring) is replaced by Moussa Djenepo. Sofiane Boufal is on the bench, despite stubbing a big toe on his kitchen table at home.

Watford make two changes to the side that went down hard against Burnley. Andre Gray and the injured Craig Dawson are replaced by record signing Ismaila Sarr and Adam Masina.

Southampton: McCarthy, Cedric, Stephens, Bednarek, Bertrand, Djenepo, Ward-Prowse, Hojbjerg, Redmond, Ings, Obafemi.
Subs: Yoshida, Long, Adams, Romeu, Boufal, Gunn, Valery.

Watford: Foster, Femenia, Mariappa, Cathcart, Masina, Holebas, Doucoure, Capoue, Hughes, Deulofeu, Sarr.
Subs: Gomes, Deeney, Chalobah, Gray, Quina, Foulquier, Pereyra.

Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland).

Anyone up for a relegation six-pointer? Good, good, just as well, because the bottom two face off at St Mary’s this evening, and whoever loses this will find themselves careering hysterically towards the slough of despond.

A draw’s no good for either team, we know this much already. Watford are bottom, five points adrift of safety already, while Saints are just one place and point better off. The Hornets have only won one game in the league this season; Southampton have managed to double that tally, but then Watford haven’t lost one of their home fixtures 9-0. So it’s swings and roundabouts.

Up and down and round and round we go. Watford beat Norwich impressively at the start of the month, a mere two Premier League fixtures ago; Saints haven’t tasted victory in the division since the middle of September. But that was at Sheffield United, who are now proven to be nobody’s mugs, and

Conan O’Brien
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men really should have trounced Arsenal by two or three goals last weekend, the eventual 2-2 result at the Emirates scarcely believable given the chances they carved out.

Good luck calling this one, then. Both teams are desperate; both are capable of pulling a performance out of the bag on their day. Both are good for capitulation, too. So this could be a rollercoaster ride. Buckle up. It’s on!

Kick off: 5.30pm GMT.