Southampton vs Swansea: Team news, kick-off time, probable line-ups, odds and stats for the Premier League clash
Ahead of the opening weekend of Premier League action, Sportsmail will be providing you with all you need to know about every fixture, with team news, provisional squads, betting odds and Opta stats. Here is all the information you need for Southampton's clash with Swansea.
Southampton vs Swansea (St Mary's)
Charlie Austin and Southampton begin the 2017-18 campaign with a home tie against Swansea
Southampton
Team news
Virgil van Dijk has been ruled out of Southampton's Premier League opener with Swansea at St Mary's, officially due to a virus.
The former Celtic star continues to agitate for a move away from the club, but has been ruled out of Saints' first league game of the season in any case.
Summer signings Mario Lemina and Jan Bednarek could make their competitive debuts for Saints as new boss Mauricio Pellegrino takes the helm for the first time in the Premier League.
Provisional squad: Forster, McCarthy, Soares, Yoshida, Bertrand, Stephens, Targett, Bednarek, Romeu, Hojbjerg, Lemina, Davis, Sims, Redmond, Boufal, Austin, Gabbiadini, Long.
Swansea
Swansea have omitted Gylfi Sigurdsson from their season-opener at Southampton as the saga over his proposed transfer to Everton continues.
Fernando Llorente is absent after fracturing his arm while on a cycling holiday last month, joining Nathan Dyer (Achilles) and Ki Sung-yueng (knee) on the sidelines.
England Under-21 striker Tammy Abraham is expected to make his debut on a season-long loan from Chelsea.
Swansea will be without striker Fernando Llorente who is recovering from a fractured arm
Provisional squad: Fabianski, Naughton, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson, Britton, Carroll, Fer, Ayew, Routledge, Abraham, Nordfeldt, Mulder, Rangel, Kingsley, Van der Hoorn, Bartley, Mesa, Fulton, Grimes, Narsingh, McBurnie.
Key match stats (provided by Opta)
Southampton have won six of their last eight meetings with Swansea in the Premier League (W6 D0 L2).
Swansea's only win at St Mary's in the Premier League came in February 2015, with Jonjo Shelvey scoring the winner that day (D1 L3).
The Swans have failed to score in six of their 10 Premier League contests against Southampton.
In their last 10 Premier League seasons, Southampton have picked up an opening day win once (1-0 v West Brom in 2013, D5 L4).
Southampton have never won an opening day home fixture in the Premier League (D5 L4).
Swansea are unbeaten in their last three Premier League games to start the season (W2 D1).
The Swans will play away on the opening weekend in the Premier League yet again - only one of Swansea’s previous six Premier League seasons has started at home (2013-14, lost 4-1 to Manchester United).
Southampton will be looking to record their 1000th home league win in this match, since joining the Football League Third Division South in 1920-21 (P1881 W999 D485 L397).
Only one team – relegated Sunderland (16) – scored fewer home Premier League goals than Southampton’s tally of 17 last season.
Swansea loan signing Tammy Abraham – who has only two previous Premier League games to his name, both as a substitute for Chelsea – was the top scoring teenager in the Football League last season, netting 23 goals for Bristol City in the Championship
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