Southampton 1-1 Brighton: Stephens saves Saints embarrassment
By Chris Hughes
A second goal in as many games from Jack Stephens helped Southampton come back from behind against Brighton at St. Mary’s Stadium tonight.
The match was arguably seen as the Saints’ most important game of the season so far, with West Brom only two points behind them at the foot of the table and Brighton only one ahead of them in 16th going into the game.
However, with the final whistle blown, Southampton fans found themselves bitterly disappointed despite coming from behind to produce a point.
The point does mean the Saints have leapfrogged Swansea to sit in 18th, a point behind the quartet of Huddersfield, Stoke, Newcastle and Brighton themselves.
The result marks a sour end to a poor deadline day by all accounts, with Southampton failing to bring in any creative talent aside from Guido Carrillo despite making £75 million from the sale of Virgil van Dijk.
Mauricio Pellegrino’s tactical decisions before and throughout the game received scathing criticism, with Shane Long preferred up top despite the physical, deep-sitting nature of the Brighton back-line.
Next: Saints 1-1 Watford: Match recap
Despite a decent start, Southampton went behind early courtesy of a Glenn Murray penalty – Wesley Hoedt was adjudged to have committed the foul but at a second glance it looked less than a clear-cut foul.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg once again had a good chance to score his first goal of the campaign, but overall it was a sloppy and negative first half from the hosts. Shane Long often sat deep to receive the ball and they left the Saints with little-to-no options up top.
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But some of the blame must fall on manager Pellegrino, who’s only change from the Watford win at the weekend was taking off the creativity of Sofiane Boufal and leaving Southampton without a natural winger until he came off the bench.
Guido Carrillo also came on a substitute after not passing fit to start, with the Argentine making a positive effect as a different type of forward.
His arrival didn’t come before the Saints drew level however, with JWP firing in a low free-kick which was smartly, or perhaps unintentionally, finished with the back of Jack Stephens’ heal. The English centre-back scored his first competitive goal for Southampton at the weekend, and now has his first league goal to match.
The Saints failed to create a huge amount of chances late in the game despite dominating proceedings, something which is said all too often against beatable teams. Next up for Southampton is a game against bottom-placed West Brom this weekend.