Bulut will have his side motivated to hit back from their controversial defeat to West Brom earlier this week and we expect them to push Southampton all the way. Nevertheless, the Saints look like a team who can still be a factor in the automatic promotion race and we are backing another home victory here.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Southampton win with a probability of 48.29%. A win for Cardiff City had a probability of 27.25% and a draw had a probability of 24.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Southampton win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.88%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.47%) and 2-0 (8.1%). The likeliest Cardiff City win was 0-1 (7.05%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.55%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with an 8.1% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Southampton would win this match.