Southampton’s run of three straight league defeats came to an end with a 1-1 draw at Wolves in a game dominated by VAR.
The match consisted of two disallowed goals, a contentious penalty and some great chances for both sides.
Wolves had their first goal disallowed after half an hour when Raul Jimenez rounded the onrushing Angus Gunn and slotted into the empty net, but the striker was adjudged to have used his hand in controlling the ball.
Despite some decent spells of Southampton pressure, it was the hosts that thought they took the lead again. This time it was VAR that ruled it out for a Jimenez offside in the build up to Patrick Cutrone’s finish following Gunn keeping out the initial effort.
It was Saints that eventually took the lead when Danny Ings capitalised on some slack Wolves defending with a calm finish past Rui Patricio.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side equalised soon after from the penalty spot when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg brought down Matt Doherty before Jimenez coolly finished.
Here’s how we rated the Southampton players:
Angus Gunn: 4
There were many calls for Alex McCarthy to start today but Hasenhuttl kept faith in Gunn despite his poor form. He got away with rashly coming out of his goal for the first disallowed goal – the third time he’s done that in four games – but didn’t have too much else to do.
Yan Valery: 5
A bit rash at times but wasn’t overly troubled defensively and didn’t get forward as much as he would’ve liked.
Jan Bednarek: 5
Bednarek was unusually a bit reckless early on with a couple of crunching tackles and wasn’t as composed as usual.
Maya Yoshida: 5
Yoshida played in the middle of a back-three and you could see the defence was more comfortable with three centre-backs, he didn’t make too many errors defensively but was also the weakest defender on the ball.
Jannik Vestergaard: 5
The Danish centre-back was very good on the ball today after playing some incisive balls forward but still looked uncomfortable at times defensively.
Ryan Bertrand: 7
Bertrand had an excellent first-half following some superb link-up play with Danny Ings but without the reward of a goal. He also marshalled the tricky and pacy Adama Traore very well.
James Ward-Prowse: 5
Another game for Ward-Prowse where you question whether he offered enough to the side. There were a couple of decent set-piece routines but he didn’t have too much of an impact elsewhere.
Oriol Romeu: 5
Romeu was a bit sloppy at times today as he gifted possession to the hosts on more than one occasion but he was trying to be more ambitious with his passing which has to be admired.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg: 4
Although you could argue that the penalty was a bit soft, Hojbjerg gave the referee a choice to make that wasn’t needed. He was another that could have done more in an attacking sense as well.
Nathan Redmond: 6
Redmond was very good today up until he got to the edge of the box. He had some excellent runs from deep but his hesitance in making a decision allowed the defence to get back before a chance can be created.
Danny Ings: 7
Ings’ hot streak continues with another goal, this one requiring a composed finish after some poor Wolves defending.
He was also very honest as he could’ve gone down under the pressure of Willy Boly but didn’t.
Before the goal, he did have another couple of tame efforts from dangerous areas but his link-up play was superb.
Sofiane Boufal (sub): 5
I would’ve liked to have seen Boufal on a bit earlier as he didn’t have too much time to make an impact. He had a couple of decent runs but without a final ball in his short cameo.
Kevin Danso (sub): N/A
Danso came on at right wing-back which isn’t his natural position but did enough to see out the draw