If the south coast really is to provide the Premier League with a vibrant, updated regional rivalry then it will need to serve up more balanced contests than this. Perhaps it will require another triumph against the odds from Bournemouth and Eddie Howe, too. Southampton did the hard work in the first half of this rarely-contested derby, superbly-crafted goals from Steven Davis and Graziano Pellè just reward for their complete dominance, and saw out a victory in which the away side were treated as arrivistes who needed an exacting lesson or two.
“I think it was maybe our best 45 minutes in more than a year,” said Ronald Koeman of an opening period in which Bournemouth, feted for their elegance on the ball and diligence off it, made no impression whatsoever. “We had a high tempo and good ball possession. If you watch the two goals it’s all about a high quality of football, and I’m very pleased about that.”
He had every right to be. Davis’s goal was the finishing touch to a rat-a-tat of a move that saw Pellè backheel a pass from the impressive Jordy Clasie into the path of Ryan Bertrand, whose first-time centre was impossible to pass up on. Pellè’s goal, a powered header from a player who makes hanging in the air an art form, came after a sublime ball from Sadio Mané to Dusan Tadic, whose stood-up cross from the left bore a certain expectation of what would happen next.
“We know Graziano is a very good striker – scoring goals, strong, one of the best in the Premier League,” said Koeman of his nine-goal striker. Pellè just gets better and his first-half performance here, in which he bullied centre-backs Simon Francis and Sylvain Distin into meek submission, was a precis of his team’s overall display.
The concerns for Bournemouth, who have just one point from their past five games, amplify by the week. Their injury list is well-documented but it was clear to see what players with the power and pace of Callum Wilson and Max Gradel would have added in a game like this. Although the return of the midfielder Harry Arter, who started his first Premier League match after three months out with a hip injury, bodes well there was little going on ahead of him, lone striker Glenn Murray nowhere near the kind of outlet needed for a side that was put on the back foot from the off.
“In the first half we weren’t ourselves, in or out of possession,” said Howe, who had hoped Arter’s presence would bolster a side that had lost its previous two league games 5-1 to Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. “I thought Southampton were very good and am not taking anything away from their performance but physically we weren’t where we needed to be and it looked like the game on Wednesday [in the Capital One Cup at Liverpool] had an effect on some of our players. It took us until half-time to rejig things and get a response.”
By then it was too late. Southampton could have been a couple of goals ahead early on, Pellè and Mané seeing shots deflected just off target before they combined for a chance that the Senegal forward, volleying into the ground and over from 12 yards, should have put away.
Davis’s goal came as no surprise, with the provider Bertrand operating almost as a winger, and nor did that of Pellè, who bested Distin’s aerial challenge in a manner that starkly illustrated the 37-year-old’s declining powers. Pellè celebrated his goal by dancing a ‘haka’ with the Saints’ New Zealand-born sports therapist, Graham Staddon, whose sporting weekend could hardly have been better.
Howe introduced the pace of Junior Stanislas and Josh King at the interval, correcting his team’s speed deficiency but simply saw Southampton drop back a yard in reply. They dominated a half in which barely a single clear chance was created, Maarten Stekelenburg’s late save from Lee Tomlin and a needless second yellow card for Victor Wanyama the only items of note.
“I think it’s impossible to play 95 minutes the way we played in the first 45,” Koeman said. “We lost more battles and more passes, and it was not the same, but it also depended on an opponent who put everything into the second half.”
Bournemouth will need to step up rather more quickly in future if Koeman’s wish for a continuation of hostilities – “the atmosphere in the stadium was fantastic, it’s a local derby and I hope it will also be next season” – is to be granted.
Man of the match Graziano Pellè (Southampton)
