Dan takes a look at Saints best win of the season so far and who were the stand out players.
After some wretched form which lead to the biting of saints fans’ nails when looking behind Southampton in the table, a win against a relegation candidate was much needed as a confidence boost within the squad and also the fans before our cup final in two weeks’ time.
Sunderland started the game well and had a positive first 20-25 minutes but didn’t have real chances and their first shot on target came after the 60th minute and was a poor attempt from distance. Saints really needed to look to find themselves more in the game and that is exactly what they did. Nice passing play, as we’ve seen already this season, led to a pass down the left to Bertrand who put in a delightful cross into the box for Manolo Gabbiadini to score his second goal in his second game for Southampton. Originally, the ball looked to come off of Gabbiadini’s head but replays showed that actually his bicep had the last touch on the ball which the referee luckily didn’t see.
Like Southampton recently, Sunderland looked invisible after conceding the first goal, even though they had an hour to score and because of dropped heads and shoulders, Saints capitalised and scored a second. Good passing between the midfield three led to Dusan Tadic on the right flank pass across goal to Gabbiadini who produced a turn of quality that we’ve been missing in our forwards all season and slotted past Manone to give Southampton a comfortable lead going into halftime. Three in two, what a player he could be!
Sunderland failed to challenge Saints in the second half to try and get back into the game but Southampton didn’t really try to get another goal until late on in the game. Long, substituted for Gabbiadini, had a good chance following another fantastic cross from Cedric to reach the head of Shane Long but the striker’s attempt was tipped over the bar by Mannone.
But fresh attempts on goal in the second half lead to a third as another great Ryan Bertrand cross in the 88th minute came off of Jayson Denayer as an own goal. Game over.
However, Southampton weren’t done there and three minutes later, Long was given too much space and his first time finish slotted into the keeper’s bottom left corner, the Irishman’s 4th in 7 games.
This was a really positive result and the perfect way to go into our big day out at Wembley. Not only is it our biggest win of the season so far, it’s also the most goals we’ve scored in a game. Yes, it was against a Sunderland side who are very poor defensively and look destined to go down, but we look to have some attacking aura about us now. Tadic looks more like the player we’ve seen the last two seasons and Gabbiadini may be the Pelle that he’s been crying out for since August. Our midfield were once again masterclass and the crosses from our fullbacks were mouth-watering. Very positive signs looking forward to the final and the rest of the league campaign, even if it was just the one game.
Man of the match: Ryan Bertrand, Tadic, Cedric, Romeu, Stephens, Long: so many players are in contention but I have to give it to Gabbiadini. For a player to score twice in a game is unheard of for Southampton this season but for him to have three goals in his first two games in a Saints shirt, what a signing he may be. His movement was stunning and, even though his first goal might be controversial, his second was sublime. The fact that he was substituted on a hattrick was curious but then again Long did score after coming on for him. Happy Days!