Dan brings us his opinion on the win at Aston Villa, the first of four wins demanded by Saints managed Ronald Koeman if we are to qualify for Europe.

Earlier in the week Ronald Koeman said that if Saints are to have a top six finish they have to win their four remaining games. With one ticked off yesterday only three games remain this season.

Just like the game against Everton, Southampton were by far the better team and should’ve scored more goals than were scored. Luckily we still managed to net four, sealing three points.

Jay Rodriguez got his first league start since October which was a delight for Saints fans to see. A goal would’ve been great but it wasn’t meant to be.

Shane Long almost opened the scoring in the second minute but his effort rattled against the cross-bar. The Irish striker did score 10 minutes later with a header from a fantastic Ryan Bertrand cross making it 1-0 to the away side.

Saints continued to control the game with Virgil van Dijk also hitting the woodwork before Dusan Tadic scored into an empty net after Long went round the keeper and the Serbian finished it off.

Playing against Aston Villa everyone would think that your team should be able to see the game out quickly and not have to worry about holding on a lead, but that’s what happened just before half-time. Ashley Westwood scored in added time just before half-time to give the hosts hope in a game that should’ve already been finished.

In the second half Saints continued to dominate and good chances weren’t converting into goals, a problem Southampton have had all season. But Tadic got his second and Saints’ third with a great finish into the bottom right corner.

Even though everyone knew that Villa wouldn’t get anything from the game, they made the visitors nervous again after Westwood got his and his teams second of the game, a goal that when he was in fantastic form, Fraser Forster would’ve saved.

Southampton restored a two-goal lead for a third time in the game when substitute Sadio Mane scored a header deep in injury time leaving the final score 2-4.

If Saints are to do well next weekend against City the defence has to be better because conceding two goals against a relegated team means your likely to concede more against a team who are scoring and fighting for a top four finish. But lots of goals can be expected with both teams scoring four in their games this weekend.

Photo: Action Images

BaselSaint added 11:40 - Apr 25 I'm not normally negative, but honestly any decent team would have pulled us apart Saturday. We had severe lapses in concentration. I would be very pleasantly surprised to see 3 points from any of the remaining games. I hope I am wrong in my analysis.
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SaintNick added 11:51 - Apr 25 I think Saints got pulled down to Villa's level, we were comfortable throughout and took our foot off the gas and let them get a glimpse, whilst your right we would have got pulled apart by a decent team, we will be much tighter against Man City
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SaintBrock added 12:53 - Apr 25 Sometimes Basel Saint it seemed to me that Long and Tadic were taking the piss rather than concentrating on scoring goals... "let's see how effing clever tippy-tippy we can be in their box" It's called under estimating the opposition which they should never do but probably explains why Leicester succeed and Saints don't
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IWOZTHERE added 14:17 - Apr 25 Not sure it often applies to Long, but it certainly applies to Tadic regularly. All our forwards seem to delay their shots too long?
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DPeps added 14:55 - Apr 25 You can only play the opposition that's in front of you, and I think this result was more down to Villa self-sabotage than us playing well. The back-pass for the second goal was comically bad! It's worth noting that Long was very offside for our first goal, so a bit of fortune there too. Anyway, 3 points. But we'll have to step up to get wins in the remaining games
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saintinexile added 18:37 - Apr 25 Newcastle's defending last week was comical and Villa's was sad. Saints' shooting, or lack of it, was unimpressive as it has been for some time now. I'm optimistic we get for more points this season but I'm not rushing to the bookies. Putting it all in perspective we have done OK this year, much better than not being in the top league, and better than many years of continuous relegation fights which I use to 'enjoy' until 2005

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