Good afternoon and welcome to Eurosport's live text coverage of Everton's trip to St Mary's to battle Southampton - stay tuned for all the goals, action and insight right here on the Eurosport website.

Really good passage of play from the league leaders, advancing after a neat turn from Sigurdsson, and Allan looks for Calvert-Lewin into feet, and he's chopped down by Vestergaard. Promising free kick here for James Rodriguez...

A beautiful little nutmeg from Rodriguez to evade Romeu, and he slides Iwobi in down the left, and the Nigerian's shot is deflected for the corner. Sigurdsson's subsequent delivery is headed away by Romeu.

Promising play from the Saints, looking to build quickly through midfield and get their danger men more involved - Redmond at the heart of it, as too Ings, who lays it off to the overlapping Bertrand, whose cross is just diverted wide by Redmond.

The first foray forward from Godfrey leads to a promising ball into Calvert-Lewin, and it falls to Iwobi who strikes it against Bednarek for the corner. It's swung in, but nothing doing and Southampton can play out.

Both teams looking to go toe-to-toe with each other at the moment, although neither has really managed to gain a proper foothold in the possession department yet. Southampton remain happy to knock it around, letting Everton press them, waiting patiently for the opportunity to flip the switch and fizz a through ball into Ings or Adams' path.

Ings caught late by Lucas Digne, winning a free kick just shy of halfway.

A nice pirouette from Allan to evade three Saints midfielders pressing the ball, and Michael Keane wraps a ball into the left channel for Iwobi to chase, but the ball goes out of play.

Southampton corner, delivered by Ward-Prowse, but a foul by Bednarek gives Everton a free kick.

Certainly will be interesting to see how Alex Iwobi can deputise for the suspended Richarlison on the left. He might not offer the creativity or the goalscoring knack, but he will surely add some dynamism and some energy to the Toffees' front line.

And we're off!

The players are out. Time for battle to commence.

5 minutes to kick off. Here we go.

However, Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the top scorer in the top five European leagues this season with his 10 goals already - scintillating form from the Everton number 9, seeking to score in his sixth consecutive game.

Danny Ings is second in the scoring charts since the restart with 11 goals - only his compatriot Harry Kane has scored more, with 12. Can he add to that tally today?

Tactically, the Evertonians will be wanting Iwobi and Digne to add width on the left flank, with Rodriguez drifting infield to affect the game in the more dangerous pockets just in front of the Saints defence. It seems unlikely to expect Godfrey to offer much on the overlap beyond Rodriguez, so Abdoulaye Doucoure will be tasked with getting up and down from his position as the right-hand shuttler.

Southampton and Ralph Hassenhuttl line up in the classic 4-4-2; with Theo Walcott out of the squad, ineligible to play against his parent club, with Stuart Armstrong having just recovered in time from Covid-19 to return on the right wing. The in-form strike partnership of Che Adams and Danny Ings will be looking to exploit perhaps the lack of pace in the heart of the Everton defence, stretching Mina and Keane into the channel between centre-back and full-back, and the Toffees will be hopeful that the recovery pace of their full-backs will make amends.

Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti noting his midfield switch-up, dropping Andre Gomes for today's captain Gylfi Sigurdsson, saying that the Icelandic international "deserves to play" after impressing in training. Elsewhere, talismanic Colombian James Rodriguez is fit enough to start despite "not training that much this week", according to Ancelotti. Ben Godfrey deputises for Seamus Coleman in an un-nautral right-back berth.

And the league leaders start with this team in their 4-3-2-1: Pickford, Godfrey, Mina, Keane, Digne, Doucoure, Allan, Sigurdsson, Rodriguez, Calvert-Lewin, Iwobi.

The home side line up in their 4-4-2: McCarthy, Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Bertrand, Armstrong, Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Redmond, Adams, Ings.

The teams are in...