While the dream of Champions League football now seems to have evaporated for both clubs, Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur will at least have the chance to consolidate their Europa League position when the two teams meet at St Mary’s Stadium in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off.

With both sides having fallen slightly off the pace in the final stretch of the season, Saints and Spurs now boast an identical set of results from their last six fixtures – with three wins, two losses and a draw apiece – but it is Southampton’s strong home record that has the most bearing on this game.

Having turned St Mary’s into a real fortress in the first half of the season, Ronald Koeman’s men hit a sticky patch of form in February where they lost to Swansea and Liverpool and drew with West Ham, but since that disappointing run they’ve steadied the ship again with three consecutive wins to nil.

Spurs, meanwhile, have struggled on their travels of late, with last weekend’s win over rudderless Newcastle and a 2-1 victory over relegation-threatened Queens Park Rangers in early March representing the only successes they’ve recorded away from White Hart Lane in their last six trips.

As such, it comes as no real surprise to see that the home side have been named as 11/10 favourites for the match, with Spurs seen as slight underdogs at 14/5 and a draw available at 5/2. Given Southampton’s recent run of clean sheets at home, there is some value on the Saints not conceding at 7/4, while they are 13/5 to win to nil against a side who have blanked in three of their last six.

Naturally, Southampton’s organisation at home and Spurs’ somewhat erratic form in front of goal make this match a strong candidate to finish with under 2.5 goals at 5/6, but it is worth noting that Harry Kane found the net against Newcastle after two barren games and he is 2/1 to also do so here.

Having recently ended his well-documented goalscoring drought with an 81st minute strike against Hull, Graziano Pelle is now the bookies’ favourite option for first scorer at 5/1, but beyond him there aren’t that many outstanding candidates for the lowest-scoring side in the top seven here, with penalty taker, Dusan Tadic, and Saido Mane the best of the bunch at 7/1 and 13/2 respectively.

Interestingly, despite what we’ve said about Southampton’s defensive resolve at home, 1-1 is the bookmakers favourite scoreline at 6/1, but with two of their three draws at St Mary’s this season ending goalless, if you are going to back both teams to share the points here, this could again be the way to go at almost double the odds of 10/1.