Oriol Romeu saves Southampton’s blushes against Aston Villa
Southampton 1 - 1 Aston VillaHome team scorers
Oriol Romeu 73
Away team scorers
Joleon Lescott 44
Oriol Romeu scores the equalising goal for Southampton against Aston Villa at St Mary’s Stadium.
Aston Villa will have a fair chance of climbing off the bottom of the Premier League table if all opponents treat them as charitably as Southampton did here. Ronald Koeman’s team passed up an abundance of opportunities at St Mary’s before allowing Joleon Lescott to put Villa into a surprising lead just before half-time. Oriol Romeu came off the bench to score a similar goal for the home side, who failed to make another breakthrough despite dominating. Rémi Garde’s fourth match as Villa manager ended in a draw that left Koeman visibly fuming.
It seemed, initially, that Southampton could not have wished for more accommodating guests as they sought to end a three-game losing streak. The hosts should have been out of sight before even half an hour had elapsed. Sadio Mané had scored a hat-trick in a record time when the teams met at St Mary’s last season and the prospect of him doing something similar convinced his family to travel from Senegal to watch him for the first time in England. Eager to impress, the winger created Southampton’s first chance in the first minute, slinking past Leandro Bacuna before pulling a pass back from the byline to Dusan Tadic. The Serb shot over from 12 yards. Graziano Pellè was guilty of an equally wayward finish two minutes later, spoiling delicious service by Ryan Bertrand by poking the ball off target from eight yards.
Victor Wanyama then headed wide from a corner before Mané chested down a cross by Tadic and blazed over the bar from 16 yards in the 16th minute. Three minutes later Brad Guzan got only a weak punch to a corner by James Ward-Prowse; José Fonte tried to send the ball back past the goalkeeper and into the net but Rudy Gestede cleared off the line.
Villa were a shambles defensively while all over the pitch they behaved like determined contrarians, utterly eschewing the current trend for pressing opponents. Yet the seeming inevitability of an opening goal for the hosts sucked the intensity out of Southampton’s game, much to the apparent fury of Koeman. The hosts should have been punished for dropping their standards into the 29th minute, when Villa’s most dynamic player, Jordan Veretout, jinked down the right wing and crossed cross for Gestede. The striker fluffed his shot from 15 yards out.
Lescott, the most experienced player in the Villa back line, was leading by examples of what not to do, his performance reaching a low point in the 34th minute when he failed to cut out a soft cross by Mané, allowing it to bounce towards Pellè, whose plunging header was kept out by Guzan. But Lescott soon made up for that by exploiting equally dozy defending by Southampton, guiding the ball into the net from close range after a corner by Veretout travelled unhindered across the face of the home goal.
Wanyama fired over as Southampton tried to make amends immediately, and Mané had a shot deflected wide early in the second half, but Villa, having been encouraged by their hosts’ profligacy, were performing better now. Garde’s side put together spells of tidy possession and threatened to increase their lead with a couple of long shots. Mostly, however, the visitors defended more diligently. Chances grew rarer for Southampton and when they did manage to prise Villa part,they were thwarted by last-ditch intervention, Alan Hutton memorably blocking a shot by Steven Davis after fine work by Cedric Soares in the 63rd minute.
When Davis put Juanmi one-on-one with the goalkeeper eight minutes later, Guzan saved well. But could not maintain their vigilance and soon Southampton equalised with a goal very similar to the one that they had conceded, Romeu stabbing Ward-Prowse’s corner into the from a couple of yards.
At least Villa did not crumble after that. Indeed, they would have regained the lead if Ashley Westwood had not slashed a good chance wide after a wonderful dinked pass by Carlos Sánchez. Virgil van Dijk and Shane Long were among the players given chances to steer Southampton back to winning ways but did not find the target with late shots.
Southampton: Stekelenburg; Soares, Fonte, Van Dijk, Bertrand; Wanyama (Romeu 63), Ward-Prowse; Mané (Long 82), Tadic (Juanmi 63), S Davis; Pellè
Subs not used: K Davis, Clasie, Martina, Caulker
Aston Villa: Guzan; Hutton, Okore, Lescott, Bacuna (Richardson 77); Sanchez (Agbonlahor 90), Gueye, Veretout, Sinclair; Gestede (Westwood 74), Ayew
Subs not used: Tiago Ilori, Traore, Gil, Bunn
Referee: A Taylor
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