Southampton started their season off in style on Saturday at the expense of Villa. Manager Neil Adkins had ignored his previous 3 defeats and made the bold proclamation of a new start with this game and now we see why. Adkins finally got to show off his new signing Gaston Ramirez, centre half Maya Yoshida and keeper Paulo Gazziniga and the trio helped inject life into the entire side.
The first half was pretty even, both sides tried to work the ball forward, both were guilty of sloppy passing, both had trouble in the area, the warning signs early on were that the Saints had players capable of beating an opponent with trickery, Villa didn’t and if it was going to come down to one factor that might be it.
Late in the first half Villa grabbed the lead. A poor pass from Jason Puncheon was stopped by Ireland. His cross was won by Bent in the air, somehow fell beautifully for Ireland again, but he mis-hit his volley, but it bounced perfectly for Bent, who tucked the ball home surprisingly coolly for a player who hasn’t scored in so long.
Villa was now looking more comfortable and the Saints a shambles and the signs were that maybe the 2 players with over a season’s worth of premiership football, Bent and Ireland might be the difference.
Paul Lambert had other ideas though. He decided to take off Ireland and replace him with new signing Ashley Westwood. Unless Ireland had an injury, I did not see the reason for this change as he was playing very well. If a change was needed, it should have been the industrious, but otherwise empty Holman who runs at players like a winger and loses the ball every time.
Southampton immediately carved out an opening in the opening minutes with Guzan having to be alert to a snap shot. Minutes later Benteke, making his full debut, found space on the right and hit gorgeous cross field pass that Bent was a little slow getting to and had to go too wide to get his shot off. Benteke got his head on the resulting corner, but it was headed out for another corner. This time Bannan found Benteke unmarked and his header went a couple of feet wide with Gazziniga beaten.
The commentator asked if Villa would “rue that miss” and the answer was a resounding yes. Had it gone in, surely Southampton’s resolve would have been trampled down, instead the home side were getting stronger, winning midfield battles, threatening Villa’s defence.
The defence was looking more and more fragile and it finally broke. Lichaj made a terrible hash of a pass as he broke forward into Southampton’s half and the Saints broke back with the menacing Puncheon finding Lambert on the edge of the area, his first touch seemed to let him down, but 3 Villa defenders stood still allowing Lambert to pounce on the loose ball and smash it into the corner of the net.
Six minutes later Villa was behind. A clever flick by Ramirez opened Villa’s defence and Clyde, the left back popped the ball through Guzan’s legs. Southampton were just showing Villa’s frailties with great running, flicks passing and a buoyancy not seen from them this season.
El Ahmedi , Vlaar and Holman were looking like Dutch league players, Lowton and Westwood looked like league 1 players, Lichaj looked every bit an American college player. Paul Lambert switched Lichaj for Joe Bennett while Gabby Agbonlahor came on for Bannan, but the changes were meaningless and Puncheon immediately ran at the two subs and was unlucky not to score an Ashley Young type goal. Puncheon did get his goal after poor defending by Lowton and Holman and his shot deflected off Clarke.
It seemed like Adkins was taking the foot off the gas pedal when he took off Puncheon for Emmanuel Mayuka, but the young African was just as menacing and looks like another good buy for the Saints. Mayuka and Lallana should have added to the lead, but they got the 4th deep into injury time when Guzan brought down Mayuka in the box and Lambert smashed the kick home.
Villa are not out of the woods by any means as it had looked after great performances against Newcastle and Swansea, but PL did warn us there would be days like these.