Poor saints left gnashing their teeth
By Ed Emeanua
Manchester United meshed-out an easy 2-0 road victory at St. Mary’s Stadium on Saturday to punch a win that left The Saints teeth gnashing amidst a catalog of missed chances.
In a slowly evolving Premier League season for Erik ten-Hag’s side, the victory at Southampton could be the turning point for a brilliant Man Utd challenge for the premier League shield.
In the last two decades, Manchester United have found Southampton to be quite a good hunting ground having gone unbeaten at St. Mary’s Stadium in such a lengthy spate of time. With their last loss at Southampton coming in 2003, The Red Devils were playing in a quite happy place.
It was the home side that got into the gears early on the game. In the 7′ mark, fanciful wing-play by Tyler Dibling after picking up possession on the right, then swerving in on his left foot and unleashing a curling effort saw Andre Onana beating the ball away from danger.
Image credit: premierleague.com
Minutes later, it was more sharp reflexes from Andre Onana who darted off his line to brushoff the ball away from Cameron Archer, as The Saints left winger looked ready to pounce onto a long pass through the defensive line.
in After the first 14 minutes into the fray, Southampton’s favor was at a staggering 56% in possession.
It took well over 16 minutes for the visitors to force Aaron Ramsdale into making the first save of the afternoon for home side. The Saints’ goalkeeper positioned himself in the right place to deny Joshua Zirkzee from close range.
Between the 16′ and the 20′ mark, the game swung to each side’s determination in a yo-yo as the runs became an end-to-end offensive.
Southampton again dominated on the 24′ mark with an assault down the right with Yukinari Sugawara slashing in on his left foot. Matthijs de Ligt was found well-positioned inside his own six-yard box to deny The Saints their opener with Andre Onana left stranded.
The pressing from Southampton was so severe that Kobbie Mainoo was pressured in the 27th minute into picking up the first yellow card of the afternoon and his third of the season for handball.
A minute later, a free header for Lesley Ugochukwu was spurned by the Frenchman after rising highest in the box but can only direct his effort over the bar.
On the 33rd minute, Dibling headed into the box, deleted Diogo Dalot, leaving the Portuguese with no other chance than to sweep out his leg.
However, Cameron Archer took what amounted to an eternity to get to the mark to take the spot kick which Onana was wise to, diving down to his right to swat off the ball and then getting back up to smooch-out the rebound.
That penalty miss proved to be demoralizing for The Saints as they went from a missed penalty to going behind in a matter of two minutes.
Man Utd enacted a short corner kick which Bruno Fernandes flicked into the box allowing an arriving Matthijs de Ligt to nod home for his first Red Devils goal in the 35th minute.
On the 41ist minute, again, from another creative corner and another goal for the visitors. This time Marcus Rashford snuffed-out his goal drought in remarkable style, angling a shot in off the post which left Ramsdale in no-man’s land.
From that point it was Man Utd held all the way as The Red Devils held on to their lead and possession to end the half 2-0 up.
With 90 and 6 extra minutes past kickoff, assisted by Dalot, Alejandro Garnacho right footed his shot from the centre of the box to the top right corner to ensure a Manchester United victory.
