It is a bad stage of the season for the goals to dry up for Southampton and Ronald Koeman could also be forgiven for lamenting the timing of their visit to The Hawthorns. West Bromwich Albion are a team transformed under Tony Pulis, with this narrow but crucial victory lifting the Midlands club eight points clear of the relegation zone and featuring the now customary clean sheet.
Southampton became the seventh team to fail to score against Albion in Pulis’s 10 games in charge and also the victims of yet another Saido Berahino goal. The game was only 70 seconds old when the Albion striker dispatched a volley of the highest quality to take his tally for the season to 17 in all competitions.
Caught cold on that occasion, Southampton warmed up after Koeman scrapped his three-man defence midway through the first half, but the visitors never really turned the heat up on a superbly organised Albion team who showed all the hallmarks of Pulis’s work on the training ground.
For Southampton, it is now only four points and one goal from five games and, quite naturally, the spotlight will shine on Graziano Pellè, who has failed to score in 10 league matches and was guilty of squandering the sort of chance that would have ended up in the back of the net earlier in the season. Ryan Bertrand’s low centre midway through the second half needed only a touch but Pellè, six yards out, failed to make any contact and the ball bounced off Chris Brunt and ended up behind.
Five minutes from time opportunity knocked for Pellè again, when Morgan Schneiderlin’s header dropped at his feet, but the Italian’s turn and swivel ended up with a tame shot rolling into the arms of Ben Foster. It was one of the few saves that the Albion goalkeeper had to make on a hugely frustrating afternoon for Southampton, who remain fifth, two points behind Arsenal having played a game more.
Asked whether the early goal was a bit of a killer for Southampton, Koeman said: “I think more than a bit, because we expect the way how they played – good organisation – but after the goal they are defending more, they drop more and then you have to be very good in creating because there is no space.
“But I think the difference was they won much more second balls than we did. We tried everything but we didn’t create a lot, maybe one big chance of Pellè and the next one a bit more difficult. The first one I think he missed the ball.”
Southampton have bounced back from a wobble before but the momentum is with their rivals at the moment. “I was always realistic,” Koeman said. “Never was I thinking we would qualify for the Champions League, a lot of big teams normally fight for that position. But we try to win more points than Southampton did last season.”
While the Dutch manager lamented Southampton’s lack of “attention” in the lead up to Berahino’s goal, there was nothing Fraser Forster could do to keep out the forward’s volley, which flashed into the top corner after Maya Yoshida, under pressure from Craig Dawson, could only half-clear Brunt’s deep free-kick.
“It’s a wonderful goal, there’s no questioning his talent,” Pulis said. “He’s top-class and over the past couple of weeks he’s really bought into what we are trying to do when we haven’t got the ball. His attitude has been very good. He’s the icing on the cake, that little bit of extra quality that every team is looking for.”
The only downsides for Albion were the sight of Berahino limping off early in the second half and Brown Ideye also picking up a knock late on. Both strikers had injections before the game and now face a race against time to be fit for the derby at Aston Villa on Tuesday.
