Southampton Wannabe vs The Real Southampton

Southamptons first match of the new season was against rival Liverpool who snuck up 3 big names of the Saints so far this transfer window. Coincidently the last name of all 3 players starts with an ‘L’ just like Liverpool themselves. Lovren was the only one of this trio to start, every time he managed to get the ball resulted in loud booing Southampton supporters.

The Southampton fans were loud from the start, as everyone could their ‘When the Saints go marching in…’ song much louder than the Liverpool fans managed to sing ‘You never walk alone’.

The Saints were starting 4 of their new signings. With Fraser Forster in goal, Ryan Bertrand as the left back, Dusan Tadic as the left wing and Graziano Pellè up front in the middle. Besides these 4 singings making their debut in the Premier League for Southampton, we still had Shane Long and Saphir Taïder on the bench. The most surprising thing is that there is no sign at all of our holy goalie Artur Boruc with Kelvin Davis being the substitute goalie.

Liverpool is trying to attack and even manages to get a few little shots within the first 10 minutes. But Fraser Forster is standing so tall that it is hard for Liverpool to beat him.

Raheem Sterling has looked dangerous from the start which makes it even more surprisingly that neither captain José Fonte nor Nathaniel Clyne is marking him, when he gets the ball in the 22nd minute. Sterling shoots from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner and scores. Forster couldn’t have prevented this.

Dusan Tadic gets a free kick in the 33rd minute, which James Ward-Prowse takes. His shot is so accurate that he almost scores, unfortunately Simon Mignolet manages to get his hands on the ball.

It seems like Morgan Schneiderlins mind is back at Southampton when he takes a shot from outside the box in the extra time. However Mignolet does save this shot in the top centre of the goal.

Southampton seem to be stronger at the start of the second half as they manage to get more ball possession and actually start to look dangerous.

Nathaniel Clyne gets the ball and passes it onto Dusan Tadic, while he continues to run upwards. Tadic reads Clyne’s play perfectly as he quickly flicks the ball backwards towards Clyne. Clyne then shoots from the centre of the box to the top right corner and Mignolet doesn’t stand a chance. Nathaniel Clyne draws Southampton level in the 55th minute.

Just 7 minutes later the Saints get another chance as James Ward-Prowse makes his way into the box, there he spots Steven Davis all free and passes it to him. Unfortunately shooting isn’t Davis his strongest asset as his right footed shot flies right into the hands of Mignolet.

New manager Ronald Koeman makes his first substitution in the 73rd minute of the match. Shane Long makes his way onto the field to replace Dusan Tadic, who has been outstanding.

In the 78th minute Victor Wanyama makes the big mistake of heading the ball backwards into the danger zone in Southamptons box. Raheem Sterling gets his head onto this ball and heads it towards teammate Daniel Sturridge. Sturridge only needs one chance to steer the ball into the inside of the left post from a very close range. Liverpool is leading now by 2-1.

Lloyd Isgrove makes his Premier League debut as he comes on for Steven Davis in the 81st minute.

Morgan Schneiderlin gets his most dangerous shot in the 87th minute as he absolutely blasts the ball into the crossbar. The ball deflects to Shane Long, the 12 million signing, who misses the complete open goal as his header goes out on the right side. This was Southamptons final chance to score and so this first game ends in a loss for the Saints.

Overall I was surprised by how well the Saints managed to play against Liverpool. I even dare say that we had the upper hand in the second half and were putting heaps of pressure on Liverpool. This match probably should have ended in a draw as both teams seemed to be equally good. However it was a great first match performance by the Southampton and they should be proud of themselves to only lose by one goal from a team who just took 3 of their best players. Yes the Saints stood their man and after seeing this match, I think they can come a long way in this season!

Southampton v Newcastle – England Trio Strikes Again

Source: Southampton FC official Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

Southampton was welcoming Newcastle United at St Marys yesterday. With both Nathaniel Clyne and Jay Rodriguez leaving the field early last week due to injuries and Morgan Schneiderlin out last week, it was questionable which players would be fit to start for the Saints. These are a lot of first team injuries, however they have some great substitutions at their hand to start when necessary.

The team sheet showed a good surprise which was Jay Rodriguez fit to start the match. Morgan Schneiderlin is fit enough to start on the bench, which is also good news. The only big name missing now is Nathaniel Clyne who’s out with a groin/pelvis injury with now clear return date yet. We do have young Calum Chambers who has also proven his worth as a right back. Maya Yoshida sustained a knee injury during training and is probably out for 7 weeks, this might ruin his changes for the world cup.

Southampton starts the match with high pressure play, like they’re used to. While Southampton is full on attacking, no one seems to be sure what Newcastle’s game plan is as they aren’t even trying anything. After 26 minutes of the match have been played, the Saints have produced 10 attempts of which 3 on target, the Magpies however haven’t even created an off target chance yet.

In the 38th minute Moussa Sissoko finds it necessary to pull Steven Davis down. The referee Andre Marriner spots this and blows his whistle while José Fonte slides in to stop Sissoko. Lucky for Fonte Marriner already blew his whistle for Sissoko’s foul, who’s now lying on the field grapping his own leg. All I could wish for is that Fonte would have got him harder to teach him a lesson for the low foul he just committed.

It takes up to the final minute of playtime in the first half for the Saints to finally get lucky and score their first, well-deserved goal. Rickie Lambert finds himself onside while he runs up, Jay Rodriguez runs up with him on his left side with only one slow Magpie defender in between. They quickly outrun this Magpie while Lambert crosses the ball to Rodriguez. Goalie Rob Elliot had his eyes fixated on Lambert, giving Rodriguez a clear path as he shoots the ball from the centre of the box to the centre on the goal. Elliot didn’t stand a chance though, there was no way he would have been able to cover both attackers.

With this goal, the Saints go into half time. It’s good for them they finally managed to score just before the break as this might give them the confidence they need to score more goals and win this match as they are the only right team who deserve to win after watching this first half.

Newcastle makes two substitutions right at the start of the second half. Probably in the hope to turn the game in their favour, however they have to work real hard if they want to turn this match around.

These two changes don’t seem to have much effect on the overall game as after one minute Southampton is already back at attacking. In the 3rd minute of the second half Adam Lallana crosses the ball perfectly to Rickie Lambert, Lambert is onside while teammate Jay Rodriguez is just offside so this is a good decision by the Saints captain. Lambert takes one touch on the left side of the 6 yard box and puts the ball in the high centre of the goal. What a start of the second half this is for the Saints and what an awful defensive work on the side of the Magpies.

Papiss Cissé makes a poor challenge on Calum Chambers in the 60th minute when he moves into Chambers leg with his studs up. This challenge could easily cost Cissé a red card. Unfortunately Andre Marriner seems to scared to pull out either card or even reward the Saints with a free kick.

Only 5 minutes after this challenge, another Magpie moves in to take down Luke Shaw. Marriner is in a real good position to see this happening but again he doesn’t blow his whistle. Maybe Marriner is just scared to get a decision wrong and decides therefore to not make a call at all. But as he doesn’t make a call at all he’s definitely making the wrong decision. I mean if you’re not sure about what you’re supposed to be doing as a referee and are too afraid to use your whistle, well then maybe it’s time you hand over your referee licence and choose another career.

In the 69th minute the Magpies make a challenge on Jack Cork, who goes down. But before he goes down, he passes the ball onto Adam Lallana. Lallana takes a clear strike outside the box with his ‘weak’ left foot. The ball flies into the top right corner, what a great finish that was. This awesome Lallana goal is definitely England squad material and World Cup Worthy. This was probably Marriners best decision as he didn’t stop to match to appoint Jack Cork a free kick after the challenge. Even though he didn’t even gesture the advantage, it was the best he could have done to just continue the match or else we would have missed this fantastic Lallana goal.

In the 72nd minute Steven Davis makes way to give Morgan Schneiderlin some time on the pitch.

It takes up to the 75th minute when Andre Marriner finally decides to pull out a card as Massadio Haidara makes a bad foul and receives a yellow card. It seems obviously that Newcastle is so desperate that they’ve decided to make challenges to maybe try and get some strong Saint players out. But the Magpies are even performing poor on making these challenges.

Gastón Ramirez comes on in the 82nd minute to replace goal scorer Rickie Lambert.

In the 88th minute Gastón Ramirez has the ball and with his good football inside decides to play a through ball over the Newcastle defence. Jay Rodriguez is waiting at the other end of the ball. There is only one defender on Rodriguez, but Rodriguez easily gets around him and shoots the ball from the left side of the box to the bottom left corner. With this he makes his second goal.

Mauricio Pochettino makes his last substitution in the 90th minute when he takes of captain Adam Lallana to bring on Sam Gallagher. I’m not sure about this decision since I reckon Adam Lallana is man of the match and as the captain I think he should have played the full match.

The match ends in a 4-0 win for Southampton, a well deserved win. They probably should have scored more goals as they could have been ahead with 4-0 by half time. And with 23 shots, of which 11 were on target, against only 5 shots from Newcastle. The Magpies only had 2 shots on target. I’m still trying to figure out what their game plan was since all the seemed to be doing was defending and even at that they were hopeless. Their best player probably was Rob Elliot but with a defence who wasn’t even aiding him when he needed them too, didn’t he stand a chance against Southamptons force. It is more than fair that the Saints took all 3 points as they absolutely deserved it and with this win they move into 8th place on the ladder, overtaking the hopeless Magpies.

Sunderland v Southampton – The Black Cats Move Forward In The FA Cup

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

It feels like only a week ago that Southampton played Sunderland in the Stadium of Light on the 18th of January. That match was a League game it which both Dejan Lovren and Gastón Ramirez injured their ankles. But today the Saints travelled to the Stadium of Light to play the Black Cats in the FA Cup.

Southamptons starting eleven is pretty surprising, many changes have been made: Kelvin Davis, Nathaniel Clyne, Maya Yoshida, Rickie Lambert, Steven Davis, Victor Wanyama, James Ward-Prowse, Adam Lallana, Guly do Prado, Luke Shaw and Jos Hooiveld are starting in this match. Kelvin Davis wear the captain armband which I can understand on one hand since he used to be the captain when he was the first team goalie. But since Adam Lallana is still starting this match, I think he should be the captain. It is weird seeing the usual captain starting while a second choice goalie gets to wear the armband.

The starting line up is strange since Southamptons next match is next week, giving the players a week to recover. Maybe some players still weren’t fit enough after last Tuesdays match and the manager just chose the fittest and best players, this is the case according to Jesús Pérez. Or Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t want to risk getting more injuries and save his best players for the League matches. Which would still be a bit weird since the players would have a full week to recover.

The match starts off slowly for Southampton with Sunderland trying hard to attack at their home ground, they are the stronger team at the start of the match. It takes the Saints well over 20 minutes of play time before they match up with the Black Cats and manage to attack some more themselves.

Not many big chances, none worth mentioning here, get created in this first half. Sunderland receives a free kick just outside the box in the 35^th minute. Sebastian Larsson takes it, but instead of shooting it towards goal, he kicks it to his left where Craig Gardner is waiting. Gardner tries to shoot at goal, but the goal has never been so high and thus the ball flies far over it.

Finally, with about 5 minutes left in the first half, Southampton seem to get stronger at attacking. This work doesn’t pay off yet, leaving the score 0-0 at half time. The last time these two sides met in the FA Cup was in 1985. Southampton won that match with 4-0, but there hasn’t been any indication that that score is going to be repeated.

Only 4 minutes into the second half and Sunderland gets their biggest chance so far. They are attacking and Luke Shaw manages to clear the ball away from the box but it goes toward Craig Gardner. Victor Wanyama turns around and chases the ball but is just not strong enough to stop Gardner, who takes the ball and runs away with it. Gardner shoots the ball from outside the box towards the top left corner. Kelvin Davis doesn’t stand a chance when the ball flies over his head. With this goal the Black Cats take the lead.

Mauricio Pochettino decides to bring on the big guns when he makes two substitutions in the 61^st minute. Jay Rodriguez comes on for Guly do Prado and James Ward-Prowse goes off for Morgan Schneiderlin. It is kind a surprising Pochettino decides to leave Victor Wanyama on the field.

Sunderland seem determined to make a second goal. In the 73^rd minute they get a big chance when Sebastian Larsson plays the ball to Connor Wickham in the centre of the box. Wickham is one-on-one with Kelvin Davis but just misses the final touch with the ball causing Davis to catch the ball instead. One minute later Larsson has a go himself outside the box but again Kelvin Davis is ready to make his save. I must say that Davis seems to be a very good shape today, probably the best I have seen him this season.

Southampton finally try to catch up with Sunderland with only 10 minutes left. Nathaniel Clyne realises the importance of this match and tries to set up his teammates to score. First he crosses it to Adam Lallana who is just outside the 6 yard box, he only just misses to the right. Two minutes later Clyne crosses the ball towards Rickie Lambert, who’s in front of an open goal. At this close range he tries to shoot it, but shoots way to high causing the ball to fly over the goal instead. How could Lambert miss such a great chance, he will be blaming himself later for this miss. Lambert hasn’t been in his best shape these last two Southampton matches.

Mauricio Pochettino decides to take of Adam Lallana in the 81^st minute so Sam McQueen can make his debut in the Premier League. I wonder if this is a smart move by Pochettino since Lallana seems to have been one of the better players on the field.

Sunderland receives another big chance with 5 minutes of the match left. John O’Shea plays the ball towards Connor Wickham who only has one Southampton defender in front of him and to Sunderland players on each side to support him. However Wickhams selfishness takes the better of him and he makes the wrong decision to try and score himself, which ends in the ball being blocked and a chance being wasted.

Three minutes later Kelvin Davis massive save when Fabio Borini shoots towards the centre of the goal from the centre of the box. Davis falls down to block the ball causing it to bounce away from goal. This was probably Davis his biggest save of this match as it almost resulted in a second goal for Sunderland.

With one minute of added time left, Southampton receive a corner and Kelvin Davis runs forwards too giving the Saints one extra chance to maybe score. This corner doesn’t even come close to ending in a goal. So the match ends and the Black Cats move on in the FA Cup with this one goal win.

It is fair to say that the better team won this game. Sunderland obviously wanted the win more than Southampton and so they got rewarded with a win. Mauricio Pochettino didn’t take this game very serious when he decided not to play with his full first team. Even though they are save in the Premier League and would have a week to recover from this match. Also the players themselves didn’t seem to worried about this match as they played a more all for themselves game instead of playing a team sport.

The Saints their game play was pretty messy and with that I don’t mean like Messi but just hopeless. I wish Southampton would have taken this match more serious and realised how much this win would have meant for their fans. Instead they decided to not even really try. All I can say is that Sunderland absolutely deserved to win this game and I hope for them that they will get further into the FA Cup.

Hull City v Southampton – Tigers Are No Match For The Saints

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

Hull City was hosting Southampton on Tuesday night. The only change Mauricio Pochettino made to the team placing Nathaniel Clyne back on the bench to let Calum Chambers start. It looks like Chambers is fully recovered now from his dead leg injury and is ready to play a full game again.

It doesn’t take long for the Saints to create some serious chances. It’s just the 4^th minute when Adam Lallana plays the ball to Rickie Lambert who is just in the centre of the box but misses to the right. He was so close to goal that it should have been on target.

Lambert gets another chance to make up for his first miss just 3 minutes later. Steven Davis plays a through ball towards Lambert who is in the centre of the box again. He shoots the ball to goal when Steve Harper and a Hull City defender both slide in towards Lambert. The ball gets saved in the centre of the goal. Second chance for Rickie Lambert in just the 7^th minute of the game and it could already have been 2-0 for Southampton.

Paul McShane has been injured during the slide tackle to prevent Lambert from scoring. The match gets stopped for several minutes while they carry McShane off the field on the stretcher. This forces Hull City to already make their first substitution and George Boyd comes on. Later on we hear that the ambulance has arrived to take McShane to the hospital and that he might have fractured his ankle.

George Boyd manages to create his first chance when he has only been on the field for 1 minute. First Shane Long tries to head towards the goals but hits the left post, next is Boyd who shoots it from the centre of the box but Artur Boruc saves it in the top left corner.

Artur Boruc takes his time in the 35^th minute to put his gloves back on his hands properly before he gets ready to take the goal kick. Referee Martin Atkinson warns him to stop wasting time. Hull City fans start to boo him and yell at him because he’s taking too long. But Boruc wouldn’t be Boruc if he didn’t answer these yells by yelling back at them. Finally Boruc takes the kick, but from that moment on the Hull City supporters have decided to boo every time the holy goalie gets near the ball.

Boruc makes an incredible save 6 minutes later when Ahmed Elmohamady crosses the ball to Nikica Jelavic, who shoots the ball from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. But Boruc is ready and waiting for it when he catches the ball and holds it tightly in his arms.

The second half starts of the same as the first half. Southampton is putting lots of pressure on Hull City limiting their options. The Tigers must have come to the conclusion at half time to try and score now, since for all of Southamptons pressure and the all the chances and attempts they have created, they still haven’t been able to score, leaving the score at 0-0.

Rickie Lambert tries to strike again in the 55^th minute. Steven Davis plays the ball to Lambert, who finds himself in a tight angle towards goal. Lambert shoots it from the right side of the box but it goes straight to Paul Harper who is waiting for it in the bottom left corner.

Not only Artur Boruc seems to get mad this match, Jay Rodriguez has had enough of the assistant referee who rewards Hull City with the ball. This is the second time Rodriguez sees the assistant making the wrong call making the ball go to the Tigers. He clearly shows his displeasure, causing Martin Atkinson to warn captain Adam Lallana to calm his player down.

4 minutes after this incident there is suspicion on a handball by Luke Shaw but the assistant referee doesn’t make a call, maybe he is scared to get it wrong again. The commentator states that he will get a decision right before the end of the night so at least someone has faith in this assistant referee.

In the 68^th minute Southampton receive a corner, which gets played towards midfield but somehow ends in the box where there are still several Saint players waiting for it. The ball seems to bounce from player to player. José Fonte heads it, but the ball gets punched by Paul Harper on the goal line. The ball deflects to Adam Lallana who shoots into the defenders deflecting the ball back to José Fonte. Fonte shoots it but Maynor Figueroa shoots it away towards Rickie Lambert who blasts it into the goal. How many chances does it take to finally get the ball into the net? About 3 or 4 would be right. It was an exciting play of ball which let to this goal. Rickie Lambert wants to claim the goal but José Fonte gets to claim it as the ball went over the line before Maynor Figueroa managed to kick it away.

In the 75^th minute Mauricio Pochettino makes his first substitution, bringing on Guly do Prado for Rickie Lambert. For his second substitution Pochettino brings on James Ward-Prowse in the 87^th minute for Adam Lallana. I think Pochettino decides to take off these forwards to rest them a bit before the next match. ‘He’s off to Brazil’ is the chant we can hear the fans cheer when Lallana hands the captain armband to José Fonte and goes of the field.

Hull City seem desperate to make the equaliser as they create to pretty big chances after each other towards the end of the match. Sone Aluko passes the ball to Nikica Jelavic who shoots the ball too high from the right side of the box. One minute later Sone Aluko gets a shot himself when Shane Long passes him the ball. He takes a good shot from outside the box towards the bottom left corner. Artur Boruc is ready to show his great goal keeping skills and stops the ball. Where would we be without our Holy Goalie?

The last big chance for Southampton comes in the 90^th minute when Jack Cork gets the ball. Cork shoots the ball strongly from outside the box but just hits the right post. What a chance this was for Jack Cork. It would have been a cracker of a first goal for the midfielder and would have given the Saints the bigger lead they deserved. Paul Harper didn’t even move, he thought the ball would go wide and was ready to take the goal kick.

The only big thing that happens in the added on time is that Mauricio Pochettino makes his last substitution and brings on Victor Wanyama. Surprising is though that it is not Jack Cork who he is replacing, it is Steven Davis. Maybe Pochettino is finally convinced by Corks skills. This is probably the first time Wanyama and Cork are together on the field in a match.

Yes Southampton did deserve the win, like they say ‘it only takes one goal to win the game’. However I believe Southampton should have at least scored two, if not more, goals. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the Saints really need to work on their goal scoring skills. They are probably the only team in the Premier League who gets so many chances but only use a few of them to the fullest.

But lets not forget that this only the second season for Southampton back in the Premier League after they had back to back promotions to get from League One back into the Premier League. Knowing that this is just their second season now and they are already 8^th on the ladder, they have done amazingly well. Like they say: ‘Our dream is real’ and it seems like they’re right.

If you have watched the game, then please do the players rating here: http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/match-ratings/display/match:8207/hull-city-v-southampton

Southampton v Stoke City

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

On the second Saturday of February Southampton played Stoke City at St Mary’s. The weather conditions aren’t really ideal this match as there is a whirling wind ruling in the stadium and the prediction that rain and hail are on it’s way as well. These conditions might make it a bit tougher to play this match. Nathaniel Clyne is starting this game instead of Calum Chambers, who incurred a dead leg in the previous match and has missed most of this weeks training due to that.

The second change is Jack Cork who is starting instead of Victor Wanyama. Cork has proven his worthy after he came on in the last match against Fulham and changed the game around. This is the first time this season that Jack Cork has been preferred to Victor Wanyama. Cork his contract is running out at the end of the season and he is keen on signing a new deal. “I love everyone here, I’m so settled here,” is what he said. “I love everything about it, so I would love to stay here, but if things go back to how they were at the start of the season then things might change.” Referring to Victor Wanyama who took over his starting position.

Charlie Adams gets confused with which sport he is playing as he makes a handball five minutes into the game. Lucky for him he makes the handball just outside the box resulting in a free kick instead of a penalty. Rickie Lambert takes the free kick just outside the box on the left side of the goal. He curls the ball perfectly into the top right corner. This is one of Lamberts talents. I am sure that this 101^st league goal for him would have given him the same great feeling like the 100^th did if not a better feeling by the way he finished this shot.

After conceiving so early on in the game, Stoke City really seems to want to make the equaliser as they try hard to attack at the other end of the field.

In the 27^th minute Stoke City gets a corner but Southampton wins the ball back quickly. Adam Lallana plays the ball forward towards Steven Davis. Davis sprints away with the ball on the left side of the field when Nathaniel Clyne sprints past him. I am still wondering where Clyne came from and what he was doing on the left side of the field. It doesn’t matter though, what matters is that he was in the right spot at the right time when Steven Davis passes the ball to him. Clyne shoots the ball from the left side on goal but Amir Begovic saves it. However it was a great chance created by Southamptons quick play.

In the 37^th minute Charlie Adam plays a through ball to Peter Odemwingie, who is just on side. Odemwingie is fast and sprints forwards to get a one on one with Artur Boruc. Odemwingie scores in the centre of the goal and draw the Potters level with the Saints. Looks like Charlie Adams efforts to make up for the early Southampton resulted in an assist for him.

It only takes 3 minutes for another exciting chance, for the Saints this time. Steven Davis shoots from the right side from a long range with his left foot at goal. The ball shoots into the bottom left corner and it’s a goal for Davis. The strong wind may have played a part in it, but either way it was a well deserved goal for Steven Davis.

In the 43^rd minute Stoke City get a corner which Charlie Adam takes. Giant Peter Crouch is in the right spot in makes a header from a close range and gets the ball in the bottom right corner. I’m not sure what Artur Boruc was doing exactly when he dived backwards to the left. But 2 all it is, again only 3 minutes after the previous goal. Charlie Adam seems to have done his best to assist in making some goals for the Potters.

Both team go into half time with 2 goals each. This first half has been exciting and definitely had at least double the amount of action compared to the Fulham – Southampton match of last weekend.

History might be repeating itself when Southampton receive another free kick at the start of the half just outside Stoke City’s box. Luke Shaw and Steven Davis are both ready to take the shot, Shaw runs past the ball as expected, leaving Davis to shoot it. But he misses.

I get the impression that Peter Crouch is just being a bully when he keeps on trying to impress referee Craig Pawson. Crouch looks almost twice as tall as Pawson when he’s hanging over the referee to let him know his opinion on Pawsons call. Lucky Craig Pawson is not impressed at all by Crouch and just ignores him.

Substitutions are made late this match when Mauricio Pochettino makes his first, and only, substitution in the 79^th minute. Calum Chambers comes on the field to replace Nathaniel Clyne.

It takes Calum Chambers 4 minutes to give a good pass forward to Morgan Schneiderlin, who is on the left side of the goal and has to shoot the ball from a difficult angle. Unfortunately his shot misses slightly to the left, but I think he was offside anyway.

Nothing more exciting happens in the second half and the match ends in a draw. Southampton have been trying hard to score again to take the win but Stoke City’s defence was to strong for the Saints to break through. However I do believe Southampton shouldn’t have let Stoke City to get equal with them so easily.

The Saints should have taken the 3 points, definitely when you look at the match statistics. Southampton has had 60% ball possession, made 18 attempts of which 5 were only on target. Stoke City only had 5 attempts but 4 of them were on target. This shows that the Saints really have to work on their finishing skills. Just being the stronger side is not enough to win a game, because you have to make goals to actually take the 3 points. It only takes 1 goal to win a match, but to be able to make that goal, they have to aim more in target.

Katharina Liebherr was seen sitting in the crowd again. Maybe she has found her Southampton spirit and is really following now in her fathers footsteps to continue running the club. The Liebherr family has done much for the Southampton Football Club and it would be nice if Katharina Liebherr was to continue pursuing her fathers dream.

Fulham v Southampton – Southamptons England Trio Secure The Win

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

On the 1^st of February Southampton travelled to Craven Cottage to play against Fulham. There are two changes to the starting eleven. Rickie Lamberts hamstring seems to be all good again and he is ready to start on the field. The biggest surprise is Victor Wanyama who has returned.

I honestly can’t believe Mauricio Pochettino made this decision after Jack Cork has been in top form and been playing great. Nathaniel Clyne lost his starting position to Calum Chambers when he got injured, it should have been the same with Jack Cork and Victor Wanyama. Jack Cork has deserved his starting position over all the games he has played lately. I reckon Jack Cork will be annoyed now, he has played the whole of January and on the 1^st of February, one day after the transfer window has closed, he gets replaced. I won’t be surprised if he decides to leave at the end of the season, he deserves better than being a second choice player.

The first half starts off pretty boring. Not much seems to be happening. Even though Southampton has most of the possession, 65% in fact, they use this by mostly just passing the ball backwards and sideways. Fulham has more attempts and most of their attempts are actually on target too.

Fulhams best chance comes in the 34^th minute when Darren Bent manages to shoot on goal twice within 20 seconds, but Artur Boruc is ready in the goal waiting for them. He is determined to keep a clean sheet and manage to save both chances.

After having seen the first half, I have to admit that Fulham was the better team. It wouldn’t be surprising if they manage to score in the second half just by using one of their chances to the fullest. The Saints have to try harder if they want to take the 3 points.

 

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

Jack Cork comes on for Victor Wanyama at the start of the second half. Wanyama gets taken off as he is not fit enough yet to play a full game. I also think Pochettino didn’t want to risk leaving Wanyama on as he has already made some stupid fouls costing him one yellow card, which could easily turn into him being sent off the field in the second half.

Southampton starts off the second half stronger than they were in the first half. Jay Rodriguez gets a chance just 3 minutes into the second half, but he doesn’t finish it neatly and misses to the left. Morgan Schneiderlin tries it with a bicycle kick in the 50^th minute at the centre of the box. It was a great attempt which just goes too high, it would have been an awesome goal if it went in.

So far I think Mauricio Pochettino made a good decision to bring on Jack Cork as the team already seems to be playing better. In the 57^th minute Pochettino takes Calum Chambers off so he can bring on Nathaniel Clyne. There is more than 30 minutes still to go and only one substitution left. These two substitutions have to be tactical ones, as why else would the manager make them so early in the match?

It looks like Pochettino’s changes were tactical as Adam Lallana scores 6 minutes after the last substitution. Lallana shoots the ball from the left side of the box right past the defenders and Maarten Stekelenburg into the far right bottom corner! A great shot and a perfect finish by the Saints captain. A goal well deserved, assisted by Rickie Lambert.

Southampton looks hungry for more goals now that they have finally managed to score their first goal. Looking at the way they are playing now, they deserve to score more goals and take the 3 points back to St. Mary’s.

In the 69^th minute Nathaniel Clyne has the ball. He knows exactly where Rickie Lambert is and crosses it towards him. Some good football insight by Clyne. Rickie Lambert shoots from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. What a good finish by Lambert! This goal marks his 100^th league goal for Southampton, a goal Lambert deserves to put his name behind.

Jay Rodriguez has a try 5 minutes later when Rickie Lambert spots him up front all by himself and passes the ball towards him. A good decision by Lambert. Rodriguez has two defenders on him who he has to try to get past. When he is on the left side of the box he breaks through and shoots the ball into the far right top corner! It was a awesome sharp shot with a good finish. The best goal of the match if you ask me. All three goals went in on the right side which makes me wonder if this is Maarten Stekelenburgs weaker side.

This goal marks the ‘game over’ moment for Fulham and is the icing on the cake for the Saints. It looks like many Cottagers fans have seen enough of this match already as they are heading to the exit, while the Southampton fans are in very good spirit. Singing lines like: ‘We are Southampton and we’re off to Brazil.’ ‘There’s only one Pochettino, one Po-chet-ti-no.’ and ‘We are Southampton, we’re taking the piss.’

Southampton definitely gained the upper hand in this match after scoring those 3 goals in a bit over 10 minutes. They are playing mostly in Fulhams half now and the Cottagers have a hard time breaking through the Southampton defence.

In the 86^th minute Mauricio Pochettino decides to make his last substitution and brings on Sam Gallagher for Jay Rodriguez. This seems more like a time wasting substitution than a game changing one, but it is good for Gallagher to at least get some minutes play time.

This is how the match ends, 3-0 for the Saints. Their first win at Craven Cottage in 67 years, an absolutely well deserved win. Even though they had the less attempts on goal in the first half, they tried harder and doubled Fulhams attempts, with 17 for the Saints and 8 for the Cottagers by the end of the match. However Fulhams attempts were more accurate with half of them, 4, compared to only 5 attempts on target for Southampton.

One side note I would like to make is that I don’t think Michael Jones was being completely fair in his calls. It seemed easier for him to hand out cards to Southampton players and give free kicks against them than the other way around.

The Saints deserved this win and I reckon that the biggest game chance came with the first two substitutions. As soon as Jack Cork entered the field, the team seemed to be playing that bit better and Nathaniel Clyne finished it off by adding some more force to the squad.

England’s National team manager Roy Hodgson was in the crowd to witness Southampton’s England trio score a goal each and secure the win for the Saints. If Hodgson wasn’t sure about these three players before, they should have convinced him of their worth with their performance in this match.

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Southampton v Arsenal – Stronger Saints Lose Two Points To Lucky Gunners

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

Last night Southampton were hosting Arsenal at St. Mary’s, on a rainy Tuesday night. Because of several injuries on the Saints side, their starting eleven would be a surprise for the fans. With Dejan Lovren and Gaston Ramirez both still out because of ankle injuries. Rickie Lambert apparently hurt his hamstring, so he is out for this match as well. As is Dani Osvaldo who has been suspended by the club for two weeks.

This leaves three strikes for Mauricio Pochettino to choose from. We all know that Jay Rodriguez hasn’t been doing to well playing up front by himself and is in a better position playing on the left wing. Then we have Guly Do Prado and Sam Gallagher left, who both have only scored one goal this season.

Pochettino has chosen to give Sam Gallagher his debut start in the first team in this match against the League leaders. I don’t know what it was that made Pochettino decide to let the 18 year old start this match against the top team, but lets be honest, Mauricio Pochettino didn’t have much choice. And it is good seeing the manager put his faith in this young striker to take on the defenders of Arsenal.

Maya Yoshida has taken up Dejan Lovren spot in the centre back. On the bench we see Jos Hooiveld, Guly Do Prado and Lloyd Isgrove. Victor Wanyama has returned to bench as well. Looks like the hairline fracture in his leg has healed and he is ready to start playing again. But to be honest, I am glad that Mauricio Pochettino did leave Jack Cork on for this match. He has definitely proven himself worthy of his spot and has shown us his top form.

Not much happens in the first 20 minutes of the match. Southampton does have more possession with 63% but neither side have created any meaningful chances yet. But just as I was about to write down nothing was happening so far, something real exciting happened.

Luke Shaw crosses the ball towards the box. I must say it was a great, accurate cross. José Fonte meets the ball at the end of this cross, he heads it and scores! Last week he got head butted in training, now he head butts the ball and scores! I am still wondering what Fonte was doing all the way up at the box, but it was a well deserved goal. For Southampton since they have been the stronger team so far and for José Fonte to show the fans it takes more than a bruised eye to stop him from playing.

After this goal seem more consisting in keeping those three points. They are putting even more pressure on their visitors. In the 25^th minute Sam Gallagher gets the ball, we can all see he is offside, but the assistant referee let him run on causing Wojciech Szczesny to run out of his goal to challenge Gallagher. The assistant referee should put up his flag as soon as he sees it is offside and not wait for it to get this far, a one-on-one challenge, before he makes his call, because this could have caused serious injuries for both sides.

Before half time, Sam Gallagher gets two changes to make a second goal for the Saints. Both times Gallagher just doesn’t seem to touch the ball right. First chance comes when Calum Chambers passes him the ball. Gallagher shoots the ball from the centre of the box but it misses to the left. But at least Sam Gallagher was waiting at the right spot. The second chance comes when Steven Davis passes him the ball. Gallagher tries to shoot, although the ball seems to come of his calf and gets blocked. Looks like Gallagher just has to practice a bit more on finishing off his chances, he is young enough and has years more to develop his skills.

Arsenal biggest, and probably only, chance of the first half comes just two minutes before half time. Per Mertesacker head passes the ball to Laurent Koscielny. Koscielny shoots the ball from close range to the centre of the goal where Artur Boruc saves it.

At the end of the first half all I can say is that Southampton definitely is the stronger team and probably should have already been up to 3-0. Arsenal has been playing really slack, they don’t even try to win the ball back after they lose it to the Saints. It looked like they were only doing a warming up at the first 40 minutes, not playing a proper football match. After watching Arsenal play, you can’t even call it ‘play’, like this, I honestly can’t believe the Gunners are at the top of the Premier League.

The second half starts off quickly when Arsenal make their first goal only two minutes into it. Bacary Sagna has the ball and he tries to make his way past Jay Rodriguez. A little trick on Sagna’s side creates just enough space between him and Rodriguez so he can move past the Saints player. He shoots from close range to the bottom left corner and scores. It was a good created chance by Sagna and Rodriguez probably should have tried that little harder to stop him. After having repeatedly watched this goal, I am not sure though why this goal goes to Oliver Giroud, leaving Bacary Sagna with the assist. Giroud didn’t even look like touching the ball.

Only 5 minutes after making their first goal, the Gunners strike again. It looks like they finally have gotten the hang of this game. Santiago Cazorla curls the ball from outside the box to the bottom left corner. Cazorla used his chance well to get Arsenal ahead. The assist goes to Mesut Özil. All I can say is that the Gunners seem to use their chances more accurate, but they still don’t deserve to win this game as they haven’t shown much skill at all so far.

The lucky thing for the Saints is that they have Adam Lallana on their side. He shows what he is made off only 1 minute after Arsenals last goal. Jay Rodriguez makes a great pass when he plays the ball through the legs of an Arsenal defender. Adam Lallana is waiting on the other side of this defender for the ball. He shoots the ball from the centre box to the centre of the goal and score! This was a perfect finish by Adam Lallana, showing us once more why he fully deserves to play in the England team.

Now that the Saints got even again with the Gunners, they seem even more determined to win this game and keep all three points. They keep on running forward, attacking the Arsenal defence to look for their third goal.

Sam Gallaghers first team start comes to an end in the 69^th minute when Mauricio Pochettino replaces him with James Ward-Prowse. Honestly I would have taken Sam Gallagher off earlier. Yes he is a young player who shows heaps of potential, but taking on the top of the table Arsenal might have been a bit too much for the young striker. After he missed two pretty big chances at the end of the first half, he should have been replaced at the start of the second half so the Saints could try to keep their win.

Mathieu Flamini makes the most stupid challenge possible in the 80^th minute when he slides in with both feet aimed at Morgan Schneiderlin. Any soccer player would know this is absolutely not done and won’t be appreciated by the referee. Even though it is just plain stupid to go in with two feet, it is even dumber to it right in front of the referee, which is exactly what Flamini did. His protests towards referee Lee Mason go unheard when Mason pulls out his red card to send Flamini off. This was a very good call by Lee Mason. And lucky for Southampton, Schneiderlin doesn’t get injured in this challenge.

With two minutes left in the second half, Mauricio Pochettino brings Guly Do Prado on for Steven Davis. Even though the whole Southampton team has been playing great, I would have brought Guly on a bit earlier to give him decent game time which he absolutely deserves after the match he played on Saturday.

6 minutes of extra time get added on after the 90 minutes. Southampton is really trying to make their third goal and win the match now that Arsenal has lost a player. But with only 10 players left, the Gunners seem determined to defend stronger to not lose this one point they could take home.

That is how this match ends, in a draw 2-2. Honestly said, Southampton did deserve the win. They have been the stronger side throughout the whole game. The first 45 minutes they completely owned the match while Arsenal weren’t even putting in an effort to get the ball. And even though the Saints started the second half off a bit less strong as the first 45 minutes, letting in 2 goals in 5 minutes, they came back stronger and even more determined after that when Adam Lallana scored their second goal. Arsenal was very weak in this match and should be so grateful for the one point they got to keep home, as it would be more deserved for them to leave empty handed. I can’t believe a team who starts of playing so weak in the first half is actually on top in the Premier League.

Camera’s also showed, during the match, that owner Katharina Liebherr was attending this match. A broad smile on her face also gives us the indication that she fully enjoyed her team play.

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Sunderland v Southampton – Unlucky Draw For Southampton

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

For Saturdays match Southampton travelled to the Stadium of Light to play against Sunderland. Mauricio Pochettino only made one change to his team, Calum Chambers is starting in right back which means that Nathaniel Clyne has been moved to the bench. Chambers wasn’t available last week due to illness but luckily he is fit enough to start again this match.

Danni Osvaldo is sitting out the last game of his suspension, so he will be available again for the next match.

Southampton manages to get a good early possession on the ball and they also posses the capability to keep the ball in their possession.

The match is only 3 minutes old when Morgan Schneiderlin head passes the ball to Jay Rodriguez, who shoots the ball straight through the defensive players, right into the bottom left corner. What a great finish this is by Jay Rodriguez to make his 50^th League goal. This is a fantastic start of the match for the Saints.

Only 7 minutes into the game and Southampton is already dominating with 81% possession of the ball so far.

Eleven minutes after his goal, Jay Rodriguez creates another chance when Jack Cork passes him the ball. Rodriguez runs all the way up towards the goal and tries to shoot, but his shot gets blocked.

The Sunderland fans look pretty down so far into the match since their team has barely shown any play so far in the game. On the other hand, the loyal Southampton fans seem in good spirits after having made a 5 hour trip to witness this match.

The Saints seem to be creating chance after chance. Firstly in the 16^th minute when Luke Shaw gets the ball after a corner. He shoots the ball at goal – it is an accurate shot which just hits the post because of a slight deflection off defender Sebastian Larsson.

Four minutes after this chance, the Saints break forward again. Adam Lallana passes the ball to Rickie Lambert, Lambert passes the ball to Morgan Schneiderlin who quickly plays it back to Lambert. Lambert takes a good shot on the ball but just misses the goal. This chance shows though how fantastic Southamptons pass play is.

In the 25^th minute we get to see which five Southampton players have completed the most passes so far into the game. Showing us the passing statistics of Sunderland wouldn’t be worth it since they have barely been touching the ball. For the Saints it is Jack Cork who has completed the most passes with already 37 so early on into the game. Second comes Morgan Schneiderlin with 32, followed by Steven Davis with 25. The two centre backs are taking up spot 4 and 5, Dejan Lovren has completed 22 passes and José Fonte 17.

Almost every time when Jack Cork got the ball, he has heaps of space to play. It looks like the Black Cats aren’t able to deck him. Cork has been dictating the game so far with his great play and lots of completed passes.

Sunderland have been chasing shadows so far. They have put no pressure on the ball whatsoever so far in the match.

Southampton gets another corner in the 30^th minute which Steven Davis takes. It looks like he is targeting Dejan Lovren, who runs at the ball, jumps up and shoots it straight into that left corner. What a good finish by the Croatian, he makes it 2-0 for Southampton. This is exactly why Dejan Lovren and José Fonte run forward whenever the Saints get a corner. It is surprising though that no Sunderland defender was on that left post, because it would have been easy to block this goal if they were there. But instead Sunderland just gave away a great goal to Dejan Lovren.

Sunderland fans seem to be leaving already after this second Southampton goal while the Black Cats try to go on the counterattack. Adam Johnson plays the ball towards Fabio Borini, who is just onside. Borini shoots the ball from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Artur Boruc couldn’t get there on time and just misses the ball. Sunderland manages to score only 1 minute and 28 seconds after Dejan Lovrens goal. This goal seems to have given Sunderland the confidence they needed as they are starting to attack more. I guess to fans who were just leaving before, are desperate to get back into the stadium now.

But Southampton doesn’t want to give their lead away as they try to keep creating chances of their own. Firstly there is Adam Lallana, assisted by Steven Davis, who’s shot from outside the box gets blocked. Then Jay Rodriguez’s shot is close but just misses to the left. And the third chance comes when Jack Cork manages to run all the way up to the box and passes the ball to Adam Lallana. Unlucky for the Lallana, the defenders are already on him and he can’t get through to take a shot. Maybe Jack Cork should have tried it himself.

Two minutes get added onto this half. And in the 46^th minute Rickie Lambert gets Southamptons final chance of the first half with a free kick. Lamberts sharp shot curled inside the post, but goalie Vito Mannone pushes it away. However it was a great free kick by Rickie Lambert even though it didn’t have a goal as a result.

The first half was the worst first half Sunderland has had this season, so they can’t probably be any worse this half. Anything they do will already be an improvement. The Black Cats need to get more in the face of their opponent at home, especially if you’re in the relegation zone like they are. They can’t afford to welcome a team at their home ground and let the guests leave with the 3 points in their pocket without even trying to win themselves.

3 minutes into the second half Luke Shaw creates another chance for himself when Artur Boruc passes him the ball. Shaw runs up the field and shoots. It is a pretty good shot which unfortunately goes straight to Vito Mannone.

Something must have happened in the Sunderland dressing room during the half time break, as they now seem to try harder to actually make another goal. Almost 10 minutes into the second half we see that Sunderland has had 59% of the possession so far this half. This could be promising for the Sunderland fans.

But the Black Cats can’t keep this up for long as a few minutes later the Saints put the pressure back on the Sunderland defence. Several chances get created from that moment onwards as Morgan Schneiderlin passes the ball to Calum Chambers, who gives the ball a good hard shot which gets saved. Jay Rodriguez also has a go at it when Adam Lallana gives him the ball, this chance gets saved too. José Fonte also has a go at it when he heads a corner towards goal, which also gets saved.

Southampton manages to go forward on the field each time they get the ball. They surely do know how to play a high pressure game. Their biggest chance of the second half probably comes in the 60^th minute when Rickie Lambert makes a run. He passes the ball to Jay Rodriguez, who shoots it from the centre of the box but just misses to the right. It was a close shot.

Sunderland scores another goal in the 63^rd minute when Fabio Borini breaks free and runs forward. Artur Boruc decides to run out and block the ball, but he just misses. Borini finishes his shot well and is celebrating his second goal happily. However I am convinced he was just offside when he get received the ball. Lucky the assistant referee agrees with me and cuts Borini’s celebrating off.

The Black Cats create another chance in the 70^th minute when Graig Gardner passes the ball to Adam Johnson. Johnson shoots the ball from the right side of the box to the top right corner. The ball only just flies through Artur Borucs hands – he seemed a little off balance. It shouldn’t have been a goal as Boruc should have been able to save it, this was a poor mistake by him and it draws Sunderland level with Southampton.

Mauricio Pochettino decides to make his first substitution in the 72^nd minute. Gastón Ramirez comes on for Adam Lallana. It is surprising that Lallana gets taken off after he has been playing such a great match so far. It is not surprising though to see Pochettino taking the captain off the field again since he has been doing this almost every single game.

Sunderland seems to try harder now to get the win, since they only need one more goal to get all 3 points. But Artur Boruc blocks their next chance in and it looks like he is trying to make up for his mistake from just before. Even though Boruc just made a good block, the Southampton fans are still showing their unhappiness about the Johnson goal he let in. Boruc isn’t pleased with the fans their response. Mauricio Pochettino seems to be so displeased about Boruc that he is even considering bringing Kelvin Davis on who is taking his jacket off and putting his gloves on. But when Boruc makes another save in the 79^th minute it looks like he has dealt with his problems and is able to play properly again. This makes Pochettino decide to leave Davis on the bench who is putting his jacket back on.

A few minutes later it looks like Mauricio Pochettino wants to bring James Ward-Prowse on the field for Jack Cork. I can understand he wants to give this young, talented player a run of the field, but Jack Cork has been playing fantastic this match and will probably be voted man of the match. It looks like Pochettino has to consider his substitutions a bit more before actually making them.

When Gastón Ramirez is just over 10 minutes on the field he starts to make a good run forward. He tries to get through the Sunderland defence, but they knock him down and even win the free kick. Wes Brown did win the ball but when you have a proper look at the replay you can also see that, after he wins the ball, he stands on Ramirez’s ankle which bends in half. So giving the free kick to Sunderland was a bad referee decision as Wes Brown just made a very nasty foul. Then on the other side of the field we see Dejan Lovren going down, he is holding his leg but it is hard to see in the replays what caused his injury. The medical staff are really slow with bringing the stretchers on to take those players off the field. Lovren even gets an oxygen mask on. It turns out that both players have a foot/ankle injury.

It is lucky for Mauricio Pochettino that he hadn’t brought James Ward-Prowse on yet as now he has two spare substitutions to bring on. It is almost as he sensed something was going to happen and that is why he has waited so long with making his substitutions or he was so pleased with the players game play so far that he just wants to leave them on. That these injuries happened is very unlucky for Southampton as now they lost two key players, but the positive thing is that Pochettino now has to leave the man of the match on the field. So on comes Ward-Prowse to replace Gastón Ramirez and Maya Yoshida takes Dejan Lovrens spot.

7 minutes get added on this second half due to the injuries which took up a lot of time. Not much happens in this extra time, no big chances are created. Sunderland does try to win especially now that Southampton has lost two key players, but Southampton stays strong and the match end in a two all draw.

Sunderland should be happy that they still got one point out of this game as Southampton has been the dominant team. The did have the upper hand as they have had 17 shots of which 8 were on target to only 10 shots for Sunderland with 5 on target. The Saints also had 63% of the possession during the whole match and completed a lot of passes. These statistics show that Southampton definitely was the stronger team and they are unlucky to not take all 3 points home with them. The Saints do have to work harder on their finishing skills during their training as it happens often that a Southampton chance ends away from the goal. On the other hand the Black Cats take every chance they get and even managed to score 2 out of those 5 on target shots.

Cardiff City v Southampton – Southampton Gets Back Into Their Winning Spirit

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

This Boxing Day, Southampton was travelling to Cardiff City Stadium. Looking at the starting eleven, it looks like Mauricio Pochettino has learned from the loss against Tottenham Hotspur. He has changed the backline. Luke Shaw is apparently better since he is starting this game. Next to him Maya Yoshida and José Fonte are also back on the field. This was a good surprise. After looking at who is on the substitute’s bench I have to assume that Dejan Lovren is sick since he is neither on the field nor on the bench.

Those little changes seem to have given Southampton back their confidence. Right from the start the Saints were on an attacking streak. In the 12^th minute Adam Lallana passes the ball to Jay Rodriguez who is running ahead of him. Rodriguez takes the ball but shoots too high.

One minute after this, it is actually working out better. Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez are running up the field together, Lallana has the ball and passes is to Rodriguez, who takes the ball and scores. Great teamwork that was, Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez play so well together. The arms of the Cardiff defenders are going up but it wasn’t offside.

It only takes 6 more minutes after this first goal, for the Saints to score again. Rickie Lambert gets the ball in midfield and has a good look forward before he passes the ball on. There he spots Jay Rodriguez on the left side, shoots the ball forward and Jay Rodriguez gets the ball right in front of his feet. He sure knows what to do with it – a goal it is. What a great football insight from Rickie Lambert to play the ball to Jay Rodriguez.

In the 26^th minute Southampton receive a corner. They pass the ball instead of shooting it towards the box and that is how the ball goes back to midfield. From there, they kick the ball towards the box. Rickie Lambert is ready for it, he claims the ball and of course he scores. So early on in the game and Lambert already has an assist and a goal to his name.

Not even half an hour into the match and already 3 goals for the Saints. It is obvious they found their winning spirit back and are ready to show it off to all the fans and anyone else who wants to see it.

Southampton’s defence definitely has improved after the loss against Tottenham Spurs. Maya Yoshida has been impressive in the backline and has made some great tackles and blocks. This makes me wonder why we haven’t seen him showing off his skills for so long. Paulo Gazzaniga is in good shape too in this game: he seems more confident with his saves and even manages to hold a couple of catches.

Calum Chambers and Luke Shaw have been good so far as well. Both these young players are strong on many different aspects. They are both good at blocking attacks and winning the ball back. But they also have good attacking skills and are running up along the sides of the field pretty often. Seeing these Southampton Youth Academy Graduates makes me wonder what other great talents are still in the Academy waiting to graduate.

After halftime Cardiff City started to show a change in their play. Something must have happened in the changing room during the break or maybe it was bringing on Danish international Andreas Cornelius at the start of the second half. Either way, the Bluebirds seem more confident. They are attacking more. Fraizer Campbell is putting more pressure on Paulo Gazzaniga, but luckily he doesn’t crack under this pressure.

Mauricio Pochettino makes his first substitution in the 79^th minute. Surprisingly he decides to take captain Adam Lallana off the field for James Ward-Prowse. Lallana passes his captain armband on to Rickie Lambert. I just can’t wrap my head around this decision, why would a manager take of the captain of his team? Of course I agree with giving James Ward-Prowse some game time, I just don’t think that taking off your captain is a good move by Mauricio Pochettino. This could give the teams confidence a dent since their coach is taking off their captain. Plus Adam Lallana has been playing really good this game so he surely deserved to play the full 90 minutes.

With about 10 minutes left of the game, Cardiff City fans start to flow out of the stadium. Seems like they have seen enough of this defeat and decided that it is better to beat the rush and get out of the stadium.

Jay Rodriguez misses out on his hat trick when Mauricio Pochettino takes him off in the 85^th minute for Gastón Ramirez. Another substitution I can’t get my head around. Why would a manager take of the best two attacking players of this match?

3 more minutes get added on as extra time. Not much happens in those last three minutes of the game. With one minute left of the extra time Mauricio Pochettino takes Rickie Lambert off for Sam Gallagher. This is probably more a move to waste time than a tactical move. Soon after this substitution Andre Marriner blows his whistle to indicate the end of the game.

The second half of the game definitely was less exciting then the first 45 minutes of match time. Even though both teams did try to create chances in the second half, neither of those chances were as big as the 3 chances in the first half which ended in goals.

It looks like Jack Corks inspiring words of this week became reality, so it is more than fair to say that the whole Southampton squad was in great shape this game. All the players have been playing great. In the last 6 games Southampton hasn’t been able to win, which makes this win right after Christmas even sweeter. A well deserved clean sheet for Paulo Gazzaniga, that must be a great boost for his confidence.

Such a great decision it was by Mauricio Pochettino to leave Jos Hooiveld out of the starting eleven. See what happens when Hooiveld isn’t playing, the whole team seems to play more confidently and the defence line is definitely way stronger without him. Jos Hooiveld was still keeping a spot warm on the bench, but that might be to blame on the injuries in the team. At least Pochettino didn’t allow Hooiveld to get on the field. Seems like Pochettino found his football insight again.

The coming games will be tough ones for the Saints, with Everton and Chelsea being the first teams on the list. All we can hope for is that they will stay in the high spirits of this game and keep this winning feeling in mind while playing those coming games. Come on you reds, you can do it. I am sure we haven’t seen the last of you.