The two battles deciding the South Coast derby

Derby previews usually drown in history. This one, according to BBC Sport, is more interested in what's happening right now: Eckert's growing influence in Southampton's attack, and the headache Portsmouth's forward partnership is giving opposition defences up and down the Championship.

Eckert's timing

BBC Sport frames Eckert as the player most likely to swing this fixture Southampton's way, arriving into derby week with the kind of attacking energy that makes a manager's selection meeting easy. Southampton sit 13th in the Championship under Russell Martin, and a player finding form against your fiercest rival is the sort of detail that gets circled on a tactics board twice.

The duo Southampton have to solve

The other half of the preview is less comfortable reading at St Mary's. BBC Sport highlights Portsmouth's star attacking pairing as the problem Southampton's back line has to actually solve, not just manage. Stopping two players who understand each other's runs is a different task to stopping one, and previews rarely name a duo unless the numbers behind them back it up.

Martin's selection headache

Two separate problems sit on Russell Martin's desk this week: whether Eckert starts with the license to hurt Portsmouth, and how to set a back line against a forward pairing that's been giving Championship defences trouble all season. BBC Sport has put both storylines front and centre, and it's Martin who has to answer for them in his pre-match press conference.

St Mary's has hosted this fixture plenty of times before, and the 74th edition arrives with both sides having something to actually prove rather than just pride to defend.