Joe Willock has established himself as a first team midfielder for Newcastle this season and is given plenty of license to get forward and attack. This means he has averaged 1.94 shots per 90 for Newcastle this season in the league and plays 74 minutes per match on average. Eddie Howe is not the sort of manager to set up a team negatively and Newcastle will look to take the initiative in this match. Newcastle will continue to attack, looking for the second goal that could kill the tie off so Willock will get forward like he did in the previous leg. Willock had 3 shots in the first leg despite only playing 66 minutes. In this match Willock can make an impact again and I expect him to have at least 2 shots, as he has in 3 of his last 5 matches.

Ibrahima Diallo has been at Southampton for a couple years and has worked his way in as a key player this season. Under Nathan Jones he has been one of the first names on the team sheet recently and was rested against Blackpool at the weekend. Diallo has averaged 2.03 fouls per 90 in the Premier League this season and away from home he fouls even more often. In away league matches he has averaged 2.92 fouls per 90 and has made at least 2 fouls in his 4 of his 7 away matches in which he has played at least 45 minutes. With Southampton chasing a result in this match they will need to stop any Newcastle counter-attacks and Diallo will be forced into making fouls. He is great value for 2 or more fouls here and I feel he is a good selection for fouls in this match.

Southampton average 4.2 corners per 90 in the league and since Nathan Jones joined the club Southampton have had over 2.5 corners in 8 of his 11 matches in charge. Newcastle concede 4.3 corners per 90 in the league and only Bournemouth and Sheffield Wednesday haven’t had at least 3 corners against them. Southampton need a goal and will want to start quick and level the match early on so they could win some early corners. In their match against Manchester City in the previous round they started quickly, in the first 8 minutes they had already had 3 corners. If they start quickly again in this match this could be ticked off very early on in this match.