Southampton 0-0 Stoke: Saints play out to bore draw at cold St. Mary’s
By Chris Hughes
In a match that was there for the taking, Southampton slumped to a goalless draw, with the result seeing the Saints drop to 17th.
It also means that if Crystal Palace can pick a point or more against Manchester United on Monday, they will leapfrog the Saints and as a result send them back into the bottom three.
Two weeks ago it was perceived that Mauricio Pellegrino’s side were entering a season-defining period of their campaign, and a fortnight later they have just two more points in their bid for survival.
The Saints were dominant throughout but as per the usual, failed to capitalise on their chances. With that being said, Josh Sims as impressive on his first Premier League start of the season and fans will hope to see him retain his place against Newcastle.
Southampton finished with 18 shots on goal in all, but just a third of these were on target as the majority of the Saints’ attackers had bad days at the office.
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Arguably the biggest and most interesting moment of the first half came in the form of Wesley Hoedt and Mame Diouf’s mini-spat which started with the latter apparently stamping on the Dutch International. In retaliation, Hoedt absolutely clattered into the striker when the two went up for for an aerial duel.
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Diouf was eventually substituted for Erik Pieters with Stoke boss Paul Lambert opting to replace the forward with a full-back, signalling the first of a handful of tactical switches the manager made over the course of the match.
With chances few and far between at times, Southampton stopper Alex McCarthy made a handful of top saves including a fingertip touch at the end of the first period.
In the second half, Saints had many more chances with the ball falling to both Guido Carrillo and Dusan Tadic on a handful of opportunities.
The former had many opportunities to score his first Saints goal, but has now instead gone seven games without finding the back of the net despite two impressive assists.
Fans were disappointed not to see Manolo Gabbiadini start after the striker’s impressive contribution against Burnley – the Italian was limited to just 26 minutes with fairly limited involvement.
Next up for the Saints is an away trip to Newcastle – Pellegrino will know that three points are an absolute must. Despite losing just twice this calendar year, the Saints are also yet to win outside of the FA Cup in 2018 – this simply has to change if they’re to stay in the Premier League.