Sheffield United 0-1 Southampton: Djenepo the man again for Saints after special winning goal

Southampton recorded their second Premier League win of the 2019/20 season with a 1-0 victory away at Sheffield United on Saturday.

In an eventful game with many goalscoring chances, VAR involvement and a red card, Saints were thankful to another special goal from summer signing Moussa Djenepo for securing the three points.

After much debate about how Saints were going to line up as the team was announced, it became clear that a back three was being used.

Yoshida joined Bednarek and Vestergaard in the centre of defence, with Cedric and Djenepo on either flank. Romeu and Hojbjerg were the central-midfielders, leaving a front three of Ward-Prowse and Boufal behind Adams.

Facing his first professional club at Bramall Lane, Che Adams would have been wanting to open his Saints account after missing some decent chances in the opening games of the season. After 12 minutes, he couldn’t have gone much closer.

As a loose ball fell to him in the area, he showed superb technique to fire a volley towards the far corner but saw the ball come flying back off the post with home goalkeeper Dean Henderson stranded.

The first-half turned out to be a lively one and further chances for both sides came and went.

Home midfielder John Fleck went close twice, whilst Adams was unlucky once again with a header and Cedric ought to have done better with a shot of his own.

Whilst it was goalless at half-time, Saints found themselves in a very open contest and would need to take one of their early chances after the break.

After some trouble down the left side of defence in the first-half too, Ralph Hasenhuttl would need to have a reshuffle of his side and come up with a plan to stem Sheffield United’s flow.

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Within seven minutes of the restart though, Saints were thankful to VAR for ruling out an opener for the hosts.

Striker Oli McBurnie had the ball in the back of the net as a free-kick ran through to him, but his teammate John Egan was adjudged to have been interfering with play from an offside position as the delivery came in.

After this reprieve via the new technology – much like against Brighton earlier this season – Saints took full advantage and again it was Moussa Djenepo with a superb goal to open the scoring.

The Malian kept his feet under pressure before jinking past multiple Sheffield United challenges and appying the calm finish past Dean Henderson to record his second goal of the season

His strike against Brighton showed his long-range shooting ability, whilst this one showed he is equally as good when running with the ball.

The hosts still sensed a chance for a late comeback, but a late sending off halted any momentum that they had hoped to build in the latter stages.

Former Saints man Billy Sharp – who had come on as a substitute – was shown a straight red card for a very late challenge on Stuart Armstrong, and Saints were then forced to see out six minutes of injury time to record their second win of the season.

Sheffield United team: Dean Henderson, Chris Basham (Callum Robinson 84), John Egan, Jack O’Connell, George Baldock, Oliver Norwood, John Fleck, John Lundstrum (Lys Mousset 72), Oliver McBurnie (Billy Sharp 65), David McGoldrick

Subs not used: Simon Moore, Ben Osborn,Muhamed Besic, Luke Freeman

Saints team: Angus Gunn, Jan Bednarek, Maya Yoshida, Jannik Vestergaard, Cedric Soares, Oriol Romeu, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Moussa Djenepo (Danny Ings 74), James Ward-Prowse, Sofiane Boufal (Stuart Armstrong 85), Che Adams (Shane Long 90+1)

Subs not used: Alex McCarthy, Ryan Bertrand, Yan Valery, Jack Stephens