Queens Park Rangers vs Southampton Prediction: Saints going for automatic promotion

Queens Park Rangers will welcome Southampton at Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium in Game Week 23 of the English Championship. Saints will be looking to keep pressure for automatic promotion spots. Who will come out on top after 90 minutes?

QPR would have gladly accepted 12 points from their first eight games under Marti Cifuentes if it had been offered to them. However, despite only two defeats, one of them being against relegation rivals Sheffield Wednesday, QPR still find themselves in the bottom three. They have gone two games without a win after their previous draw with Plymouth Argyle. While there are some positives to take from Cifuentes's short time as manager, the upcoming away matches against Millwall and Ipswich Town put pressure on them to at least secure a point against Southampton. 

Lyndon Dykes is being suggested as a possible replacement for Sinclair Armstrong in the center of the QPR attack. Reggie Cannon is expected to continue playing as the right-back, despite being substituted at half-time during the Sheffield Wednesday game for tactical reasons. Chris Willock is being considered for a return to the team either in central midfield or in a wide attacking position. 

The potential starting lineup for QPR includes Begovic, Cannon, Dunne, Clarke-Salter, Paal, Dixon-Bonner, Field, Dozzell, Smyth, Dykes, and Chair.

In a different season, Southampton would have been much closer to the top two teams, rather than being 10 points behind Ipswich. However, Russell Martin is extremely pleased with the team's 14-game unbeaten run since the end of September. The recent 4-0 victory over Ipswich Town adds to their nine wins and five draws during this period. The team has not conceded more than one goal in a game since October 25. The only way Southampton can achieve automatic promotion is if both Leicester City and Ipswich have a second-half-of-the-season collapse. Despite this, Southampton will do everything they can to stay close to them. This is partly due to the fact that they only have a nine-point lead over seventh place, which means that there are teams close enough to put pressure on Southampton. 

Martin may choose to keep the same lineup as the previous match, with Kyle Walker-Peters moving to left-back and Joe Aribo playing as a forward, which proved to be successful. Ryan Fraser and Carlos Alcaraz may be kept on the bench since they were rested during the last quarter of the win over Blackburn. 

Southampton's possible starting lineup consists of Bazunu, Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Walker-Peters, Smallbone, Downes, S.Armstrong, A.Armstrong, Edozie, and Aribo.

 This upcoming fixture is important for QPR as they face their first challenge under new management. However, Southampton poses a difficult opponent, making us predict a strong away victory. We expect both teams to be on the scoresheet.