Amid a weekend of rather unspectacular Premier League fixtures, Tottenham’s visit to St. Mary’s stands out.

The Lilywhites and Southampton have been enduring rather different campaigns, the former fighting for a spot in the top four and the latter striving to stave off relegation, but that’s exactly why their meeting in Sunday’s 4pm kickoff could be such a pivotal encounter – Saints desperately need to start picking up some points, especially at home, and they have the quality to do so.

So, can the history of this fixture during the Premier League era give us any hint of an upset? Football FanCast takes a look…

Head-to-Head

The initial signs aren’t encouraging for Saints fans. While both sides have kept a relatively similar number of clean sheets in this fixture, Tottenham have picked up almost double the amount of wins, scored 26 more goals and incurred three less red cards.

Bizarrely, though, Spurs dominance has only really been a persistent trend since Southampton returned to the Premier League in 2012. From that point, Saints have lost nine of eleven versus the Lilywhites, which is the exact deficit between both sides in terms of wins.

Their only respite during that period was on the second-last matchday of the 2015/16 season, when Steven Davis scored twice at White Hart Lane after Spurs had seen their title hopes evaporate to the benefit of Leicester City.

Top scorer – Matt Le Tissier

Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier leads the way in terms of goals scored in this fixture, netting seven times from his 15 top flight encounters with Spurs. In fact, only two teams have conceded more Le Tiss goals in the Premier League – Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa with eight apiece.

What will concern Saints fans, though, is the presence of two current Tottenham players in the top five in the form of Harry Kane and Dele, both of whom – barring late injury – will likely start on Sunday. Alli particularly has produced devastating form against Southampton – five goals and four assists in four Premier League encounters.

The shared hero – Gareth Bale

While Gareth Bale only ever featured for Southampton in the Football League, he is unquestionably the biggest talent to play for both clubs during the Premier League era, going on to become Real Madrid’s world-record signing in summer 2013 and lift three Champions League titles with Los Blancos.

Accordingly, it’s easy to forget the Welsh wizard actually started out as a left-back, earning his move to Tottenham in 2007 after netting a succession of free kicks as a teenager during his first full campaign in the Saints first team.

Not everybody was convinced by Bale at White Hart Lane – in fact, he set a club record of making 24 league appearances for Spurs without winning a game. But as it soon became apparent Bale’s technical qualities would be more effective further forward, the 68-cap international quickly transformed into one of the Premier League’s leading entities, eventually netting 26 times in his final season before joining the Galactico ranks at the Bernabeu.

The classic contest – Tottenham 7-2 Southampton

In a match containing nine goals, seven in Tottenham’s favour, Southampton incredibly took the lead twice.

It was Glenn Hoddle’s return to the club where he’d made his name and would later manage but typically for the former England gaffer, a heavy emphasis on attacking football eventually derailed his side. Indeed, Jo Tessem scored the first goal for Saints only to see it cancelled out moments later by a Dean Richards own goal, while new signing Tahar El Khalej marked his debut by putting the visitors back into the lead.

But by half-time, Tottenham had already swung the tie back in their favour with Chris Armstrong, Darren Anderton and Steffen Iverson cementing a healthy 4-2 lead. From that point, Southampton unravelled; Armstrong completed a brace and Iverson latched onto a David Ginola pass to seal a hat-trick in the 90th minute.

Spurs would finish the campaign in 10th place, while Hoddle would leave Southampton to manage at White Hart Lane almost exactly one year later.

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