Southampton v Middlesbrough BettingChoice Analysis

Struggling Southampton will be hoping to move away from the relegation zone sooner rather than later following the appointment of Harry Redknapp. The Saints have just 12 points from 16 matches and lie in the relegation zone.Redknapp joined Southampton on Wednesday just two weeks after walking out on their bitter south-coast rivals Portsmouth. Although the former Pompey boss is confident of turning around the fortunes of his new club, it may take a few weeks to see an improvement. The one victory that came under former head coach Steve Wigley was ironically against Portsmouth, and even that came against an opponent that had been seriously distracted in the build-up. The Saints are quite simply not the same team they were under Gordon Strachan. To make matters worse for Southampton and their new manager is the news James Beattie faces two further weeks on the sidelines after suffering a recurrence of a calf strain in the defeat at Manchester United.Beattie has already missed a number of games this season, and it has been reflected in their poor run of results. Next up for the relegation threatened club is Champions League chasing Middlesbrough. After a couple of indifferent results, Boro looked almost back to their best against Manchester City last Monday. Most encouraging for Steve McLaren was the return to goalscoring form of Viduka and Hasselbaink. If these two strikers are playing well, any team in the Premiership will struggle to keep a clean sheet, let alone a club languishing near the foot of the table. Of the two players, the one to back this weekend is Hasselbaink, who has scored four times away from the Riverside compared to Viduka who is yet to register on opposition territory. Boro have already won four times away from home this season, and should be backed to make it five against a poor Southampton team missing its best player. 6/4 is the best price to be found on the visitors at Blue Square, which is also the same odds available on Hasselbaink scoring for the second consecutive match. In addition to the above two bets, a smaller investment is recommended on West Brom. Since taking over at the Hawthorns, Bryan Robson has yet to experience victory, although he has been somewhat unfortunate. Last time out his team were leading Portsmouth 2-1 with six minutes to go, but ended up losing the match. There was also that horrendous miss by Kanu in Robson's first match, and in between those games there was an impressive draw at Highbury. The next opponents for the Baggies is Charlton who haven't been great on their travels this term. Admittedly, they did win at Crystal Palace last Sunday, but that was somewhat fortunate considering Andy Johnson had a penalty saved not long before the last minute winner. West Brom are in desperate need of a victory to climb off the bottom and stay close to the clubs above them. After a few near misses, Robson should finally witness his new set of players taking maximum points.