Charlie Austin came off the bench to score the winner as Southampton beat Swansea 1-0 on Sunday.
After their Europa League success over Sparta Prague on Thursday night, Saints were desperate to secure their first league victory under Claude Puel.
The game got off to a fairly scrappy start, with neither side creating much in the way of chances nor making the most of short spells of possession.
The first chance, however, fell to the hosts. After some great work by Nathan Redmond set up Shane Long, his tame effort was awkwardly pushed away by Swansea ‘keeper Lukasz Fabianski and neither Steven Davis or Dusan Tadic could bundle in the follow up, with the offside flag being raised to spare their blushes.
It was Steven Davis again in the thick of the action, heading over unmarked from Shane Long’s cross.
Not long later Saints came close again with a header, this time from Virgil van Dijk. The Dutchman rose highest to meet a corner, however, he could only direct his header straight at Fabianski.
Five minutes before half-time came a rare moment of controversy. The ever-tenacious Shane Long was sent chasing the ball after heavy touch, only to go down under the challenge of Kyle Naughton. Referee Mike Jones decided the Irishman had dived and brandished a yellow card. Replays suggest the decision was a correct one, as Long seemed to go down before any contact was made.
Moments later, Nathan Redmond had two glorious chances in quick succession to put the hosts ahead just before the break. After a breaking through on goal, he could only send the ball high and wide from an angle, leading to an earful from Shane Long who felt Redmond should have squared the ball across to him with the goal gaping.
Moments later, it got even worse for the summer signing from Norwich. After being picked out in the box, he cut back with a brilliant dummy only to send the ball well over the top with the goal at his mercy. A horrible miss which lead to him collapsing to the turf in disappointment.
It was Saints, again, who started the half brighter, with Shane Long being played in behind the Swansea back line, only to see his shot hooked off the line by Kyle Naughton.
Not long after and the hosts had the ball in the net. Nathan Redmond, this time, choosing to square for Shane Long who tucked the ball away, to only to be wrongly denied by the offside flag.
Claude Puel then decided to make a couple of changes, bringing off Jordy Clasie and Shane Long for Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Charlie Austin respectively. The decision to bring off Long raised a few eyebrows in St Mary’s, with his pace in behind causing the visitors defence all kinds of problems.
It was Dusan Tadic’s crosses causing more problems for The Swans, with his corner being headed into the ground and over by Oriol Romeu, who was having a superb game in the middle for Southampton.
Minutes later and the hosts came mighty close to breaking the deadlock. Nathan Redmond’s cross picking out the unmarked substitute Charlie Ausitn, whose header crashed off the crossbar and onto the back of Lukasz Fabianski and out for a corner. Extremely unlucky for The Saints.
It didn’t take long for Austin to make amends, mind. Redmond again sending in a looping cross to Austin at the far post, who controlled the ball brilliantly on his chest to then lash the ball home past Fabianski. It was no more than Southampton deserved after such a dominating for the majority of the game to this point.
As the game wore on, Swansea did manage to get a slight hold of the game and started to cause the hosts some problems, with substitute Jefferson Montero leading the counter attacks and giving Saints full-back Cedric Soares a tough time.
Four minutes from time, Francesco Guidolin’s men did manage to carve out their first real chance of the game. Gylfi Sigurdsson did well to get a shot away and forced a smart stop from Fraser Forster down to his right.
After a tense finale the match finished 1-0 to The Saints gaining them their first Premier League victory of the campaign. Although, it should have been a lot more, with Nathan Redmond in particular squandering numerous chances in the first half to put his team ahead and out of sight.
Next up for Claude Puel and Southampton is their first EFL Cup game of the season against Crystal Palace as they look to gain their third home victory in six days.
