In what can only be described as being a match of two strikingly different halves, Southampton staged the unlikeliest of comebacks to prevail against the odds versus a strong Tottenham side.
Whilst former Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino will be scratching his head as he strives to understand how his Spurs side failed to capitalise on a dominant first half performance, his opposite number Ralph Hasenhuttl will be jubilant with the outcome of the contest at St Mary’s. Although there was a sizeable amount of good fortune involved in the win, especially in a first half where Spurs hit the crossbar and Harry Kane was uncharacteristically wasteful, Tottenham rode their own luck and were fortunate to finish the match with 11 men.
The referee in particular, Kevin Friend was abject and failed to punish a headbutt by Sissoko late in the encounter, whilst he was lenient with regards to a foul committed by Walker-Peters when Armstrong was running through on the Spurs goal. Nevertheless, in a carbon copy of the goal scorers against Manchester United last week, Saints benefited from late goals from Yan Valery and James Ward-Prowse. Here’s what we can take away from St Mary’s.