Source: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc?fref=ts
Everton has travelled to St Mary’s to take on Southampton. Southampton have only taken 4 points out off a possible 15 out of the last 5 matches. Everton is in 5th place with their eyes on a Champions League next season while Southampton is in 8th place, this could be an interesting match.
Morgan Schneiderlin is approximately out for 1 week with a hip/thigh injury, which is why we see both Jack Cork and Victor Wanyama starting. Mauricio Pochettino has decided to start Sam Gallagher this week instead of James Ward-Prowse. This changes the starting line-up around a bit, with Gallagher apparently up front while Cork, Wanyama and Davis in defensive midfield.
The match starts of quickly with Southampton on the ball as they run towards the box. Rickie Lambert is on the left side when he decides to cross the ball towards the box. What happens next seems to surprise everyone when Antolin Alcaraz decides to head the ball. But instead of heading it away from goal, he decides to head it in the goal! This stupid mistake gives the Saints the lead within the first minute.
This giveaway goal gives Southampton a boost of confidence as they try to attack more and are attempting to create a couple of chances, but none seems to end in an actual chance. Steven Davis probably gets the biggest chance in the 20th minute when Rickie Lambert crosses the ball towards him. Davis shoots from the centre of the box but misses to the right. I am not sure how he could have missed that chance.
But things change in the 31st minute when Nathaniel Clyne crosses the ball towards the box, after a few defenders touch it, it goes towards Seamus Coleman. Coleman decides to copy Alcaraz and also heads the ball towards the goal. Another own goal gets Southampton further ahead. And again goalie Tim Howard can’t do anything to stop this from happening.
In the 38th minute Everton make their second handball in their box, but referee Michael Oliver decides not to see this. Another missed penalty goal, we could have been up to 4-0 by now.
In the 46th minute, Dejan Lovren seems to make a handball just outside the box. Everton are yelling for a handball, but if Michael Oliver doesn’t want to recognize an Everton handball then why would he call now for a handball by Lovren?
Everton makes a great run in the second minute of the second half when Steven Naismith passes the ball to Gerard Deulofeu, but Deulofeu gets called offside. Southampton are lucky here as I don’t think this call is fair as he doesn’t look to be offside. This could have been a great Everton chance but the linesman decides differently.
In the 58th minute Jack Cork wins a free kick when Gareth Barry roughly takes him down. This free kick as dangerous for Everton as it’s just outside the box and Rickie Lambert knows exactly how to take these kind of free kicks. Unfortunately he hits the right post this time and with that he also misses a big chance for Southampton.
3 minutes later Leon Osman is running in the Southampton box with Dejan Lovren right behind him. Lovren slides in and wins the ball, but as he slides down he seems to take Osman down with him. Michael Oliver decides to give Osman a yellow card instead for diving. I honestly don’t think this was a yellow card, but it wasn’t a penalty either.
Everton creates their biggest chance in the 63rd minute when Romelu Lukaku gets the ball in the centre of the box. He heads it, but unfortunately for him, he heads it straight towards Artur Boruc. If he would have head it anywhere else, it would have been a goal.
When Steven Davis passes the ball towards Adam Lallana in the box in the 71st minute, Everton decides to block the ball with their hand again. But as we already know. Michael Oliver is blind for handballs.
Mauricio Pochettino makes his first substitution with 15 minutes left, James Ward-Prowse comes on for Sam Gallagher. I am glad he decided to take of Gallagher instead of a midfielder. Yes this probably was Gallaghers best game so far, but he still was the weakest player on the field.
James McCarthy decides to tackle Dejan Lovren in the 80th minute, the tackle is good and Lovren goes down. Then it looks like Lovren is holding McCarthy down on purpose so he can’t get back up to get the ball. But Michael Oliver decides to play on.
In the 85th minute Harrison Reed replaces Adam Lallana. The bad thing of taking Lallana off almost every match is, that now England manager Roy Hodgson never gets to see Lallana play a full match while he is in the crowd. This can work negatively for Lallana’s chances in the world cup.
Pochettino makes his final substitution with 1 minute left to play. Steven Davis makes way for tall Brazilian, Guly do Prado.
James Ward-Prowse gets the last chance of this match in the 91st minute when Nathaniel Clyne passes the ball towards him. Ward-Prowse makes a good shot from outside the box but Tim Howard saves it.
This was the 20th time in the history of the Barclays Premier League that one team makes two own goals in during the game. And with these 2 own goals the Toffees’ grant the 3 point to the Saints.
It just annoys me now when I hear the commentators talk in Evertons favour as they get further away now of a Champions League spot. Yes, Everton misses some key players due to injury, but so did Southampton with Rodriguez, Schneiderlin and Ramirez out. Which makes both teams equal and disqualifies any excuses about Everton being worse due to injuries.
Then they also claim that Everton should have gotten 2 penalties in the second half due to tackles by Dejan Lovren made in the box. But then again, Everton made 3 handballs in their box which should have been penalties in our favour. So again this excuse gets disqualifies as we both missed out on at least 2 penalty calls, which balances it out again.
To be honest, if it wasn’t for the own goals, it probably would have been a draw. Because even though the Saints looked more attacking, they didn’t look like scoring. Even though we didn’t play that good, we were in control of the game. Everton clearly played worse as they didn’t have one proper shot on goal. Every ball went straight to Artur Boruc, who was more than comfortable to save them all.
Everton had their fate in their own hands and are further away now from a Champions League spot due to their own stupidity, due to two big defensive mistakes which ended in own goals. I wouldn’t be surprised if Everton would become the next team in line for Luke Shaw as they should seriously consider purchasing some proper defenders at the end of this season.
asaintsfcangel 