Southampton kicked-off their 2016/17 Premier League campaign with a 1-1 draw against Watford at St Mary’s.
Saints’ new boss Claude Puel handed a debut to summer signing Nathan Redmond and the England under-21 international impressed in his first competitive game.
Southampton made a poor start to the game and found themselves behind after just eight minutes.
Nordin Amrabat clipped a cross to the back post which Hornet’s captain, Troy Deeney, knocked down for the advancing Ettiene Capoue who fired past Fraser Forster and into the roof of the net to put Walter Mazzari’s men in front.
in the opening half-an-hour, Saints looked a shadow of last season’s team. There were players, James Ward-Prowse, for example who were making silly technical errors. Until the last 15 minutes of the first half, Saints didn’t get in the game.
Claude Puel’s men looked very good after the early blip. There was some neat, intricate play between the likes of Nathan Redmond and Dusan Tadic as Saints looked to open up the resilient Watford defence.
After half-time, Saints looked a lot more encouraging and the introduction of Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg changed the whole complexion of the game; he ran the show.
After 58 minutes, Southampton finally got that illusive goal that they’d been looking for all afternoon.
After successive corners, Dusan Tadic whipped a fine ball in and Watford were unable to clear, before Redmond volleyed the ball into the empty Watford net.
Another controversial incident was when Watford’s Ben Watson hauled down Shane Long after the Irishman was clean through on goal. Watson was shown a red card by referee Roger East just 11 minutes after coming on for Valon Behrami.
Although Saints looked the more likely to edge the game in the closing stages, they couldn’t get past the Watford defence and the Hornets were sent home happy with the draw.
