Southampton were unfairly beaten 1-0 Manchester United, despite a very poor performance by the visitors.
Mauricio Pellegrino named an unchanged side for the first time this season, with Shane Long starting upfront again after his good performance against Crystal Palace last week.
The first half was fairly even, with both sides getting their fair share of chances, but it was the visitors who took the lead, as a cross from Marcus Rashford found the head of Romelu Lukaku, who forced a good save from Fraser Forster, but the ‘keeper couldn’t keep hold of the ball, and the Belgian tapped it in from close range.
Saints had a few chances nearing the end of the half, but it was the Red Devils who had the lead at half time.
The second half was one to remember, as Southampton dominated United, and were constantly creating chances and goal scoring opportunities. Shane Long, Dusan Tadic, Mario Lemina, Nathan Redmond, Oriol Romeu and Steven Davis all had chances to score, but United, with nine of the ten outfield players defending, managed to achieve the definition of a ground out victory, taking all the three points to Manchester.
Here are five things we learned from that unlucky performance from the Saints:
Best performance so far
Despite not winning the game, Saints ran United riot. The second half was dominated by Pellegrino’s side, with the Red Devils hardly getting into our half. They were incredibly lucky to get three points from the match.
Shane Long, Dusan Tadic and Nathan Redmond caused the defence so many problems and United only got away with it because of the sheer quantity of defenders in their own penalty area. They had nine at the back in the end.
I was really impressed with the performance, and I hope that we can continue that against Stoke.
Magic Mario
What a player this lad is!
Once again, Mario Lemina shocked us with another outstanding performance. He was quality at beating his man and showed great passion and strength against the likes of Lukaku and Fellaini.
His passing was off slightly, but another solid all round performance from the ex-Juventus man.
Super Shane
Shane Long had a great game against Palace last week, and it was expected that the Irishman would retain his place, and boy, he proved himself worthy!
There wasn’t a time where he wasn’t causing the United defence problems. He latched onto every loose ball and never gave anyone time to think. He was so good and didn’t deserve to come off. Needs to start again against Stoke.
Poor from the Devils
Despite United getting the three points, it was arguably their worst performance of the season. They were awful.
No one showed any danger upfront and Lukaku got extremely lucky when he scored a tap in from one yard out, but apart from that, they had no other clear cut chances.
Defensively, on the other hand, they were acceptable, as they did well in the first half to isolate Long to only a handful of chances, but everyone played at the back in the second half.
They hardly got into our half after the restart, and when they did, our defence dealt with it easily.
There was a lot of time wasting from their defence in the second half, and some unnecessary ‘injuries’, but Saints definitely deserved at least a point against the Devils.
Positivity and Improvement
Today was a very impressive performance. We created a large number of chances, looked confident upfront, and stayed solid in the midfield and the defence.
Tadic, Redmond and Long were so good and created some lovely moments in the final third, and everyone put so much passion and ambition into the game.
Maya Yoshida and Wesley Hoedt were so solid at the back, and did very well at keeping the United attack quiet.
Bertrand and Cedric caused so many problems on the overlap and provided some dangerous crosses into the box.
Forster wasn’t at his best today, but made some good stops in the second half.
A good performance all round today from the boys, and if we play like that against Stoke, we could be in for a great victory!