In my opinion odds on Southampton are really high. They have bigger chances to win than bookies wants to suggest for us in their odds.

It's first match for Southampton since their manager Ralph Hasenhuttl was sacked. It's opportunity for caretaker manager Ruben Selles to show up on big stage before new manager arrival. Players also should have motivation to play good because new manager for sure will pay attention for their upcoming matches. I expect pretty strong line up today.

Southampton always is very hard to beat at St. Mary's Stadium. Despite very poor season, they already made some good results at home like 2:1 win against Chelsea or 1:1 against Arsenal. Southampton also don't have problems with goalscoring at home as they scored 8 goals in 7 home Premier League matches.

Obviously, Sheffield currently is on good position in league table (3rd), but they are not belong to the level where Southampton is as they plays two levels below (League One). According to the expected goals scored model Sheffield results looks much better than really should. Sheffield scored 33 goals in league so far, but according to the model they should score only 20.3 (!!!). It's huge difference especially at this stage of the season.

I believe Southampton wants to gain momentum for upcoming big home match against Liverpool in Premier League so we will see pretty strong line up with motivated players. Sheffield of course wants to knock out prestigious opposition, but EFL CUP is not their priority in long term - they wants to get promotion in league, loss here is not problem for them. Hosts have all required tools to win at home against lower rank opponents.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

在我看来，南安普顿获胜的几率真的很高。他们获胜的几率比博彩公司给我们的赔率要高。

这是南安普顿主教练拉尔夫·哈森胡特尔被解雇后的第一场比赛。这是在新教练到来之前，代理教练鲁本·塞尔斯在大舞台上露面的机会。球员也应该有打好比赛的动力，因为新教练肯定会关注他们即将到来的比赛。我预计今天的阵容会很强大。

南安普顿在圣玛丽球场总是很难被击败。尽管本赛季表现不佳，但他们已经在主场取得了一些不错的成绩，比如2:1战胜切尔西或1:1战胜阿森纳。南安普顿在主场进球方面也没有问题，他们在7场英超主场比赛中打进8球。

显然，谢菲尔德目前在联赛积分榜上处于不错的位置(第3)，但他们不属于南安普顿的水平，因为他们比(英甲)低两个级别。根据预期进球数模型，谢菲尔德的结果看起来比实际应该的要好得多。到目前为止，谢菲尔德在联赛中打进了33球，但根据模型，他们应该只有20.3球(!!)这是巨大的差异，特别是在赛季的这个阶段。

我相信南安普顿想要在即将到来的英超主场对阵利物浦的比赛中获得动力，所以我们将会看到非常强大的阵容，球员都很积极。谢菲尔德当然想要淘汰那些有声望的对手，但是从长远来看，英冠杯并不是他们的首要任务——他们想要在联赛中升级，在这里输球对他们来说不是问题。东道主拥有所有在主场战胜低级别对手所需的工具。