Everton vs Southampton preview, team news, tickets and prediction

Everton and already relegated Southampton will clash in the Premier League at Goodison Park in Merseyside on matchday 37. 

As of the time of writing, Everton are 14th on the log with 39 points from 35 matches, while Southampton are rooted to the bottom spot with just 11 points from the same number of matches and are set for an immediate return to the Championship. 

Everton have not been themselves in the last couple of years. It has been one relegation battle after another, and they were locked in it again in the early stages of this term. After so much investment in the squad in recent years, the team was carefully strengthened in the summer before the season kicked off. Iliman Ndiaye arrived from Marseille, Jesper Lindstrom arrived from Napoli, while Jack O’Brien also came in from Lyon as some of the high-profile signings for the club.

Despite those summer additions, it was a difficult start to the campaign for Sean Dyche’s men as they lost their first four Premier League games of the season to Brighton, Tottenham, Bournemouth, and Aston Villa. In the EFL Cup, they were also knocked out on penalties by Southampton. A first league win of the season came in a comeback 2-1 win over Crystal Palace at Goodison Park. Dwight McNeil scored a brace after Marc Guehi opened the scoring for the Eagles. 

Everton went ahead to win just one of their next three matches before losing to Southampton in the reverse fixture. The Toffees lost just once in their next seven league games (W1 D5) to improve on their position on the log. Everton ended the year with another home loss to Nottingham Forest, and after another defeat at Bournemouth in the new year, Sean Dyche was sacked to put an end to his two-year tenure. He left the club in 16th spot, having scored only 15 goals in 19 games. Just days later, the club confirmed the return of David Moyes as head coach.

“As everybody knows, this is a different beast to many other clubs. Everton is completely different,” said Moyes while speaking to journalists. 

“A couple of weeks ago I thought there was no chance Everton would be in a relegation fight, and I think they will be strong enough to stay away from it.

“We need everyone behind us, the players playing better and scoring more goals if we’re going to make that happen.”

Since Moyes’ arrival, Everton have managed to win six more games and pick up other valuable points to crack into the top 15. They were billed to stay up due to the terrible form of Southampton, Ipswich, and Leicester City, and it has been confirmed now. 

Everton, who are set to move to a new home at Bramley-Moore Dock for the 2025-26 season, will say goodbye to Goodison Park with this fixture, and they will be keen to make the occasion a memorable one. However, they have just a win in their past five Premier League games, and did throw away a two-goal lead against already relegated Ipswich Town in their most recent Premier League game at the time of writing. 

On the other hand, Southampton were candidates to go down after their promotion was confirmed last year. However, many expected them to be better than this, but they have been quite underwhelming. Despite replacing coach Russell Martin with Ivan Juric in December, Southampton still failed to get going. Juric eventually left the club after managing just one Premier League win in 14 games. 

Meanwhile, they became the first team in Premier League history to be relegated with as many as seven games of the season remaining, following their 3-1 defeat at Tottenham on April 6, their 25th league defeat.

At the time of writing, they have lost 28 games out of the 35 they have played this season. Out of the two wins they have recorded this term, one came against Everton in the reverse fixture on the South Coast. The Saints have also won just one game this year in the Premier League, and it came against fellow Championship-bound Ipswich Town. 

In terms of the previous 45 meetings between the two sides since 1995, Everton have won 18 times, Southampton have won 15, and 12 of those meetings have been stalemates.

Match tickets

The epic match at Goodison Park in Liverpool kicks off on Sunday, 18th of May, 2025 at 12:00 GMT+1. 

The 39,572-capacity stadium will host this landmark fixture.

Getting Everton vs Southampton tickets could take a lot of work given the standard of this game. Hence, you are advised to search ticket reselling sites should they be expectedly sold out on each club’s channels. 

Team news

Line-ups

Striker Calvert-Lewin is fit again after featuring against Ipswich Town on match day 35. Dwight McNeil has also been recovering from a knee injury he suffered some few months ago, while Jesper Lindstrom is out for the season. James Tarkowski is also likely not to feature. Being the final Premier League game at Goodison Park, a veteran player like Seamus Coleman might get some minutes. 

Everton possible XI: Pickford; Young, O’Brien, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Harrison, Gueye, Garner, Doucoure, Ndiaye; Beto

As for Southampton, Albert Gronbaek (Achilles) and Charlie Taylor (hip) are both ruled out, but Paul Onuachu, who had a brief injury spell recently, could feature. Mateus Fernandes and Kamaldeen Sulemana may continue in attack, though, while the rest of interim manager Simon Rusk’s first XI could remain intact.

Southampton possible XI: Ramsdale; Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens; Walker-Peters, Downes, Ugochukwu, Manning; Fernandes, Sulemana; Stewart

Prediction

Everton made a disappointing start to the season once again. However, they did well as Moyes’ return to the club raised the competition level, and that has seen them secure their place in the elite division for another campaign. Taking all of that into account, getting Everton tickets on time should be a priority.

The fans have been through a lot in recent seasons and it will just be nice to finish the season with a win here. The Toffees have won two of the past three Premier League meetings against the Saints at Goodison Park.

Meanwhile, Southampton are down and out already as they will be playing in the Championship next season.

Everton 3-0 Southampton