A busy weekend of Premier League action concludes on Monday night with the mouth-watering clash between Southampton and Manchester United at St Mary’s, where the host’s top four credentials will be given another stern examination by a visiting side who are looking to extend their current winning streak to five league games.

With Ronald Koeman’s team having only conceded one goal at home all season prior to the visit of Manchester City, a 3-0 reverse wasn’t exactly what the Dutchman had in mind when he spoke about showing their quality to the rest of the league – and as a result, the Saints will be eager to get back to get basics and limit a United attack that is finally starting to click to as few chances as possible.

Indeed, such is Southampton’s defensive resolve under Koeman that the home side are 16/5 to win the game to nil despite the visitors’ steadily improving form, but it is perhaps at the other end of the pitch – where the goals are beginning to dry up – that they may experience problems. Having scored nine league goals in September and October, the Saints mustered just four in November and their top scorer, Graziano Pelle, has not found the back of the net since the 8-0 demolition of Sunderland.

As such, odds of 15/2 on the game finishing 0-0 or 5/2 on there being under 1.5 goals may well grab the attention of bettors across the country, especially when you consider that the visitors look likely to be without both their leading scorer and most creative player – Wayne Rooney and Angel Di Maria – for the game due to knee and hamstring injuries respectively.

Nevertheless, with Robin van Persie beginning to find his feet again after a slow start to season and loan signing Radamel Falcao now fit and pushing for a start, this will undoubtedly be another big test for the Saints following their back-to-back defeats to City and Arsenal – and if it’s one that you fancy them failing once more, the smart money could well be on backing either striker to snatch the only goal of the game at long odds of 35/1 or 40/1 respectively.