Our man of the match: Bournemouth (A)
Southampton were held by Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon, with the honours even at the Vitality Stadium.
Both teams had their fair share of chances but failed to clinch an all-important winner in the end, with both goalkeepers cancelling their opponents out.
Ryan Fraser opened the scoring for Bournemouth after some calamitous defending from Wesley Hoedt. However, in the second-half, Charlie Austin converted Nathan Redmond cross well.
There were a few good performances from Saints and one player who particularly stood out, for me, was Virgil van Dijk.
Much of the attention from the game went towards Ryan Bertrand, who enjoyed a very strong game. He’s been in top form recently and it’s good to see him getting back to his best.
However, I thought Van Dijk was outstanding. He was imperious at the back and put on a characteristically classy performance.
Van Dijk has been lambasted for a lack of effort in recent times but no such claims can be made about his performance at Bournemouth. He put his body on the line, fought for every second ball and was alert to danger.
It’s good to see the Dutchman performing how we know he can, pocketing strikers and acting as an outball from deep.
Honourable mentions also go out to Fraser Forster and Charlie Austin, who are both in good form at the moment.