Southampton 8 Sunderland 0 Premier League match report: Grazian Pelle scores twice in Saints rompSouthampton vs Sunderland, Premier League match report - Sunderland's defence implodes on the South Coast, scoring two own goals on their way to ignominious defeat
On fire: Graziano Pelle can't stop scoring, bagging a brace for Southampton
By Tom PrentkiSouthampton recorded their biggest victory in 93 years to dismantle Sunderland who twice scored own goals as they slumped wretchedly to ignominious defeat. “We feel sorry for our opponents,” said Graziano Pellè, who capped an extraordinary week with two goals and an eye-catching performance for the Saints.
The Italian scored the winning goal on his international debut versus Malta on Tuesday evening, before being named the Premier League’s Player of the Month on Friday. The former ballroom-dancing champion can add empathy to his ever-growing list of talents, but it won’t mean much to Sunderland. Far from the award being a curse for the Saints, it proved the catalyst for an emphatic display and a record-breaking scoreline with Ronald Koeman also scooping the managerial prize.
Southampton hadn’t won a Premier League game by more than four goals ahead of this fixture and club statisticians will have to go back to 1921 to find the same scoreline. “We are very pleased and still a little bit in shock,” said Koeman. “It is not a normal result.” It could have been so different had Sunderland not been architects of their own, humiliating downfall. Santiago Vergini destroyed the Mackems’ bright opening with an extraordinary own goal — a thumping volley into the bottom corner when under little pressure.
“We didn’t start well,” said Koeman.
“Sunderland were the dominant team and we had problems. The first 20 minutes we were very flat.” Vergini’s was the first of many errors during an abject display, though Sunderland should have been given a penalty with the score at 2-0 when Fraser Forster upended Steven Fletcher.
Pellè’s brilliance was upstaged by a wonderful display of poise, technique and vision from Dusan Tadic, provider of four assists and a goal after participating in the controversial game between Serbia and Albania in midweek. “He is a fantastic player. He is always a player who gives a lot of assists and I enjoy watching Dusan very much,” smiled Koeman.
The former FC Twente player is rapidly making Adam Lallana’s name a distant memory at St Mary’s, such has been his start to the season, and the Saints, described as a club in ‘meltdown’ this summer, may well find the vultures circling again if they maintain their place in the upper echelons of the division.
Mauricio Pochettino beat Southampton with his new club Tottenham Hotspur last time out but couldn’t mastermind victory over Sunderland in four attempts last season. This result was never in doubt after Vergini’s inexplicable strike, though he was not the only Sunderland player deserving of opprobrium.
Pelle was soon in on the act, tapping in Steven Davis’s low cross after Vergini had absented himself at right back before Sebastian Larsson mustered a rare attempt at goal for Sunderland with a free-kick beaten away by Forster.
The third came when Tadic teased his way down the left side and teed up Jack Cork who finished unconvincingly from close range via Vito Mannone. The former Chelsea midfielder had not scored prior to Koeman’s arrival but is flourishing in a more attacking role. Incredibly, things got worse for the Mackems in the second half with Poyet at a loss to explain what he called his team’s “embarrassing” performance.
Things began just as they had in the first half with Sunderland to the fore and then conceding an own goal. This time Liam Bridcutt erred as he carried the ball over the line after Mannone had saved Pellè’s shot following an excellent Southampton move involving Tadic and Ryan Bertrand.
“I’m very proud about the second half. We had 17 players out on the international break,” said Koeman of his players. “We played great football, we scored great goals and it was a great afternoon. Holland is more easy to score eight goals than in the Premier League,” he laughed.
Tadic and Pelle, opponents in last season’s Eridivisie, have developed a tacit understanding of each other’s game and combined for the latter to hit a first time cross-shot beyond Mannone who’s head was now spinning.
Perhaps the capitulation of his defenders had something to do with his laughable clearance to the feet of Tadic who confidently curved the ball back round him and into an empty net for number six. The midfielder reverted back to his role as provider to create Southampton’s seventh and eighth.
First Victor Wanyama, another stranger to the scoresheet in Pochettino’s more cautious system, benefited from Tadic’s generosity to smash his pass high into the top left corner of Mannone’s ever-rippling net.
Senegalese forward Sadio Mane, for whom there is real hope at St Mary’s, was next in line to score his first goal for the club since arriving for £11.8 million from Red Bull Salzburg to round off Southampton’s afternoon and add to the Mackems’ gloom.
Like Pelle though, Koeman was dignified in victory.
“I know Poyet very well. He was a player of Zaragoza and I was a player of Barcelona. I said ‘unlucky, you did not deserve this score today.’”
