Southampton vs. Brentford Betting Tips: 22/1 cards double at St Mary's

Relegation-threatened Southampton host Europe-chasing Brentford at St Mary's on Wednesday night at 7.30pm.

Given the crowded nature of this season's battle for survival, a win for the rock-bottom hosts would spring them out of the relegation zone to as high as 15th.

Meanwhile, three points on the road for Brentford could jump them up to 7th to within a point of Liverpool.

Here at BettingOdds.com we've analysed the match markets and picked out our best bets for tonight's clash.

When the teams clashed in early February it was Brentford who ran out comfortable 3-0 winners over a dismal Southampton. A week later the Saints sacked Nathan Jones and have since gone on to pick up valuable wins against Chelsea and Leicester under new boss Ruben Selles.

Selles could even have made it three wins from four league matches with his side perhaps a little unfortunate not to come away from Man Utd with all three points last weekend after the teams played out a goalless draw.

Southampton's recent 1-0 win against Leicester City was remarkably their first home victory since August, now the target will be back-to-back wins at St Mary's for the first time since February 2022, an outcome that can be backed at 21/20 with Betfair.

As for Brentford, their impressive 12-game unbeaten run surprisingly came to an end last weekend in a 1-0 defeat at Everton.

The Bees have comprehensively beaten Southampton 3-0 in the last two encounters and edge the betting at 29/20 to secure all three points, while a draw can be backed at 9/4.

Forgotten man Theo Walcott had started just one Premier League match all season prior to Southampton's 1-0 win against Leicester, during which he won his side a penalty.

He was trusted again by Selles for the 0-0 draw at Man Utd, with the player's experience and mentality at this pivotal point of the season deemed vital by his manager.

Walcott had a whopping four shots at Old Trafford, two of which were on target. The former Arsenal star got himself into some excellent positions and, in truth, he really should have bagged a brace but was denied on both occasions by the excellent David de Gea.

In Southampton's aforementioned 3-0 loss at Brentford, Walcott came off the bench for 25 minutes and in that short period had three shots; two on target.

The 33-year-old should be confident of a third start in a row in the return fixture at home to Brentford and I like the look of him at 13/10 (UniBet) to back up his performance against Man Utd by registering at least one shot on target tonight.

For the long shot, I'm after James Ward-Prowse and Ivan Toney to both be booked at 22/1 with bet365.

The Saints skipper has started to show some real tenacity as tensions rise at this precarious stage of the season.

He's racked up at least two fouls in six of his last 10 matches and picked up three yellows in the last five games alone. He was perhaps fortunate to not suffer a booking at Old Trafford too.

At 4/1 Ward-Prowse looks like a big price to frequent the ref's book for the fourth time in six games.

Ivan Toney (7/2) is no stranger to seeing a yellow card wafted in his direction this season.

Only three players in the Premier League have been booked more times this term than the Brentford striker who has racked up eight yellows, one of which came in the 3-0 win against Southampton. He's also third in the charts for fouls, giving away 41 in 23 games.

To be honest, I like both of these card selections as singles but the extra juice of the 22/1 Bet Builder is hard to overlook.