Southampton were unfortunate not to come away with at least a point after suffering a 1-0 defeat against Manchester United.
Mauricio Pellegrino named the same line-up that was victorious against Crystal Palace, whilst José Mourinho also made no changes to the team that had beaten Everton 4-0.
Despite Southampton possessing the ball throughout most of the opening stages, it was United who made the breakthrough thanks to Romelu Lukaku. Some good passing within the centre of the pitch eventually led to the ball finding its way to Ashley Young, who managed to wrong-foot Dusan Tadic and deliver a cross. Fraser Forster made an impressive save from Lukaku, but he could only parry the ball back to the Belgian, who had a tap in into an open net.
From there, it was one-way traffic. Southampton dominated both in terms of chances and possession for the entire remainder of the match but just couldn’t find an end product.
The best chances fell to Oriol Romeu, as David De Gea was well beaten by a low shot across the goal, but the ball was inches wide. Later, Romeu had another attempt at goal, this time right in the centre of the goal and much closer after the ball fell to him following a corner but he couldn’t quite poke the ball home.
Attempts from Shane Long and Nathan Redmond might only find De Gea’s gloves or the ballboys either side of the goal.
The last bit of drama to the game was a sending off, but not to a player. Instead, Mourinho was sent to the stands after he was adjudged to have stepped onto the pitch.
Southampton fans will have been encouraged by Saints’ much improved performance levels, but at the same time, aggrieved that they weren’t able to pick something up from this fixture.
Saints next face Stoke at the Bet365 Stadium which is a tough place to go to for any side.
