Southampton 1-2 Everton: Saints deep in trouble as Toffees claim vital win

Southampton’s troubles were deepened on Saturday afternoon as their worrying performance against Everton saw them lose 2-1.

Another costly slow start from Saints saw them go behind in just the fifth minute as Tom Davies headed in from a corner.

A brief bright spell from the hosts saw Danny Ings equalise early in the second-half, but it was Richarlison who would secure his side a priceless win with 15 minutes remaining.

Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl was somewhat hamstrung by an injury to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Ryan Bertrand’s suspension when choosing his starting line-up, but the team he chose looked uncomfortable in the early stages of the match.

Cedric in particular looked awkward on the left and Stuart Armstrong was a square peg in a round hole at right wing-back despite Yan Valery being in the matchday squad.

Everton went ahead when Mason Holgate and then Tom Davies won free headers from a corner – the latter nodding in at the back post to highlight just how simple it is to exploit Saints’ defensive frailties currently.

Good link-up play between Cenk Tosun and Theo Walcott then saw the visitors go close again, whilst Alex McCarthy had to be alert to tip over a mishit cross from Davies. But it all looked too easy.

It had proved to be another half lacking heart from Saints, but they did respond after half-time and after the introduction of a hungry Sofiane Boufal.

Bright moments from him and Moussa Djenepo got the crowd going again, and it was Boufal who produced the equaliser with dancing feet.

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He wriggled his way to the goalline and passed across goal to a perfectly placed Danny Ings, and the striker had the easy task of turning into an open goal for his seventh of the season.

However, the strong spell petered out and – after Gylfi Sigurdsson and James Ward-Prowse had forced saves with decent efforts – Everton sprung into life to clam the winner.

Djibril Sidibe was played in down the right a fizzed a superb ball across the area towards the back post. Richarlison met it with power and planted a controlled volley past McCarthy to send the travelling fans wild.

Areas of the home crowd turned on their team at the final whistle and there looks to be a lot of work needed for Saints to salvage their season already.

They sit in 19th and are three points inside the relegation zone, whilst Everton give themselves breathing space after moving up to 13th.

Saints team

McCarthy, Bednarek, Stephens, Vestergaard, Armstrong (Obafemi 90+1), Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Cedric (Boufal 46), Djenepo, Redmond (Adams 81), Ings

Subs not used: Gunn, Yoshida, Valery, Danso

Everton team

Pickford, Sidibe, Mina, Holgate, Digne, Schneiderlin, Davies, Sigurdsson, Walcott (Iwobi 74), Richarlison (Keane 89), Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 74)

Subs not used: Lossl, Coleman, Gordon, Baines