Everton Home Won 1 – 0
Our management must have seen something they liked about the Armstrong and Archer partnership as tried against Stoke as they were paired again to face Everton, with some usual suspects recalled behind them, including Lallana preferred to Aribo while Sugawara was benched after further defensive lapses. It’s no secret how Southampton like to play and teams set themselves up accordingly; I doubt if The Toffees usually apply so high or aggressive a press as they tried in this game. Saints don’t do that stuff at the back for fun, the aim is to find space further forward by drawing out opponents – but on the few occasions the desired result was achieved, it seemed to be Downes in possession rather than playmakers like Lallana or Fernandes. Lallana didn’t come out for the second half, which continued in much the same vein nevertheless, even if there were signs that Everton might be beginning to tire. They still looked the more likely to score, forcing Ramsdale into action more than Pickford was called upon. The Saints keeper contributed an astonishing double save from Tarkowski to keep the scores level; a restart with a free kick suggested that there may have been an offside, but more likely was a handball in the melee that followed the first block and our hero just managed to steal a few yards. After substitute Betuncal (‘Beto’) got on the end of a knock back from Tarkowski and sent the ball crashing against the bar, Saints fans would have been willing the clock to run down even more quickly. Instead we had a goal to cheer as play moved swiftly to the other end and more subs came into play, with Sugawara taking advantage of Dibling attracting players away from the danger area before Armstrong swept home a low cross. Now time remaining was all anyone cared about, but almost immediately Beto ran into a canyon-wide gap between Bednarek and Walker-Peters and ‘scored’ past a stranded Ramsdale. Ah, but might he have been offside? Contrary to fears, VAR found that he was, and in the end it was worth the unnecessarily long wait. Good old VAR, who had earlier reprieved Bednarek from a possible red card after a professional foul on Beto (always Beto!). A few even longer waits were over: since the last clean sheet (Wembley) the last shut out in the Premier League (12th March 2023) and last Premier League win (that one’s a week earlier). Back then I ‘m not sure we had ‘expected goal’ stats: in this game Southampton’s figure was less than one – how does that work?
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
2. Kyle Walker-Peters, with spells at right back and left back.
6. Taylor Harwood-Bellis, at the heart of a resilient defence.
30. Aaron Ramsdale. Most saves were ‘expected,’ but not the one from Tarkowski.
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