Match report
Full time at St Mary's: Southampton 1-4 Tottenham Hotspur
It’s all over! Mike Dean draws proceedings to a close after a very lively second half that marked another successful return to Southampton for Mauricio Pochettino. Spurs ran out easy winners in the end, but Southampton were in touch until the 84th minute, despite having been reduced to 10 men when Nathan Redmond was sent off shortly before the hour mark. Virgil van Dijk opened the scoring for Saints very early doors, but a brace from Dele Alli and goals from Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son meant Spurs took all three points despite Kane missing a second half penalty.
90 min: Shane Long and Jan Vertonghen pick up yellow cards for something and nothing, which means the Tottenham man will join Kyle Walker on the Naughty Step for his side’s next game, against Watford.
89 min: So, back to those quick-fire goals. Both were spookily similar, with Son’s the pick of them. He latched on to a long ball out of defence from Eriksen, sped past Oriol Romeu and finished with a precision shot across Forster’s bows that went into the bottom corner. Alli’s second was not all that different: from a counter-attack Danny Rose picked him out on the edge of the middle third and he was given time and space to pass the ball into the same corner.
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89 min: Spurs substitution: Vincent Janssen comes on for Harry Kane.
GOAL! Southampton 1-4 Tottenham Hotspur (Alli 87)
87 min: Another counter-attack, another finish into the bottom right-hand corner, with Dele Alli bagging his second of the night with a low pass into the bottom corner.
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GOAL! Southampton 1-3 Tottenham Hotspur (Son 84)
85 min: Son extends Tottenham’s lead with a fine finish into the bottom right-hand corner, finishing a counter-attack in most emphatic style.
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83 min: Cedric plays the ball in behind the Spurs defence for Shane Long to chase. He steals a march on his markers and attempts to chest the ball down in space, but is correctly flagged for offside after mistiming his run.
82 min: Tottenham substitution: Mousa Dembele off, Harry
Winks on.
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79 min: More slapstick from Lloris, who rushes out of his area to head a clearance straight to Hoejbjerg. The substitute attempts to lob the keeper, but fails abjectly in his attempt to do so. Moments previously, Fonte had been lucky to avoid a booking (at least) for a wild lunge on Danny Rose, which the full-back managed to evade.
78 min: A woeful clearance from Hugo Lloris goes straight to Dusan Tadic in space not too far outside the Spurs penalty area. He’s caught unawares and dispossessed before he has time to react.
77 min: Tottenham’s ongoing failure to add a third goal means Southampton remain in with a shout of rescuing something from this game despite being down to 10 men. They’ve 13 minutes left to do so, along with whatever the referee adds on for stoppages.
75 min: Just before that Spurs substitution, the apparently tireless Rose cut in from the flank and sent a rasping shot well wide of the upright.
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74 min: Spurs substitution: Moussa Sissoko off after what has been, by his own low standards since moving to Tottenham, a decent performance. He makes way for Heung-Min Son.
72 min: Southampton triple-substitution: Shane Long, Dusan Tadic and Pierre-Emile Hoejbjerg on for Jay Rodriguez, Sofiane Doufal and Steven Davis.
71 min: Spurs attack up the right flank, with Rose and Sissoko combining well. The ball finds its way to Christian Eriksen, who rattles the cross-bar with a surface to air screamer from outside the penalty area.
69 min: Southampton go on an increasingly rare attack into Tottenham territory and Cedric arcs a cross from deep towards the far post. Hugo Lloris is quick off his line to catch acrobatically.
65 min: Victor Wanyama shoots from distance, stinging the palms of Forster in the Southampton goal and winning his team a corner. Nothing comes of it, although Forster is forced off his line to clear.
64 min: Some housekeeping - before it all kicked off, Kyle Walker received a yellow card that will rule him out of Tottenham’s New Year’s Day match against Watford under the totting -up procedure. Danny Rose has since been booked, but it’s Southampton who are down to 10 men and trail by the odd goal of three.
60 min: Mike Dean took a curiously long time to take his red card out of his pocket and show it to Nathan Redmond then. He’d awarded the penalty and Harry Kane was waiting to take it when, as an apparent afterthought, he decided to send Redmond on his way. The less said about Kane’s penalty the better, but it was certainly an entertaining three minute spell.
AND NOW KANE MISSES THE PENALTY!!!
58 min: It’s all go at St Mary’s, where Harry Kane blazes his penalty over the bar! He glowers at a loose divot, as if to suggest it’s the pitch rather than he who is to blame.
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NATHAN REDMOND IS SENT OFF!
57 min: After what appears an eternity, Dean sends Redmond off with a straight red card for being last man back and preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity.
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PENALTY FOR SPURS ...
55 min: Great refereeing from Mike Dean, who plays the advantage after Dele Alli was put through on goal by Moussa Sissoko, only to be held back by Nathan Redmond. After Alli put his shot wide, Dean blew his whistle pointed to the spot.
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54 min: Spurs won that corner after some dithering in defence from Jose Fonte under pressure from Kyle Walker. Christian Eriksen’s delivery was beautiful and with Southampton’s defenders fast asleep, Kane rose at the near post to guide the ball in the top right-hand corner.
GOAL! Southampton 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur (Kane 52_)
52 min: Harry Kane scores with his head at the near post, turning in an out-swinger of a corner with a marvellous finish. That was a fine goal.
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48 min: Almost four minutes in and this second half remains exceedingly scrappy, what little play there’s been punctuated by a series of free-kicks and throw-ins. Steven Davis goes down under what looked a fairly agricultural Victor Wanyama challenge right under the nose of referee Mike Dean, but the advantage is played. Dean goes on to have a word with Wanyama, but keeps his yellow card in his pocket. The challenge was clumsy rather than malicious and Davis didn’t make a big deal out of it.
47 min: A scrappy start to the second half, but Boufal eventually gets his foot on the ball out on the left flank before gadding up the left touchline and winning a throw-in. Nothing comes of it.
Second half: Southampton 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
46 min: Spurs get the second half started, with no changes to either side at the interval. They’ve had one shot on target each and both headers have gone in.
Half-time at St Mary's: Southampton 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
The players troop off for their half-time brew with the scores level. Tottenham will be happier with their performance, but it’s all to play for in the second half. A point isn’t much use to either side, but on the balance of play so far, the visitors look the more likely winners.
45 min: The fourth official suggests one minute of added time in an absorbing match that’s had few interruptions. Tottenham started badly, but are very much in the ascendency as we approach the interval. On the scoreboard, however, the scores remain very much level, with Dele Alli having cancelled out Virgil van Dijk’s opener.
43 min: A neat touch from Victor Wanyama in the Southampton penalty area enables him to take out a defender and make room for a shot about seven yards from Forster’s goal. As he shapes to pull the trigger, Jose Fonte takes the ball away from him with a desperate last-ditch lunge. Brilliant defending. Moussa Sissoko’s delivery to Wanyama wasn’t half bad either - the much-maligned French international is having one of his better games for Spurs tonight.
42 min: Another Spurs corner; their sixth. The delivery is poor and Jay Rodriguez clears, but only as far as Alli.
39 min: After a very shaky start indeed, Spurs continue to dominate as they have done for the past 20 minutes. Most of the play is inside the Southampton half, with the home team sitting way too deep and getting pressed high up the field. Claude Puel will have to do something about this at half-time, if not sooner. Dele Alli is presented with another scoring opportunity of sorts but fluffs his long range effort.
38 min: Tottenham win their fourth corner, which Eriksen takes from the left. He plays it short to Dembele, who ends up winning corner No5 off Cedric as he tries to beat the full-back and get a cross into the Southampton penalty area. Nothing comes of it.
35 min: The ball’s played wide to Kyle Walker on the right flank, but his cross is blocked by Redmond. The ball breaks kindly for the right-back, he plays it inside to Sissoko and Spurs continue a patience build-up.
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32 min: Southampton win a corner after Jan Vertonghen dives in to intercept a pass from Nathan Redmond to Cedric, who was galloping into space down the right side of the penalty area. Good defending. Bertrand’s corner is punched clear by Hugo Lloris in the Tottenham goal.
30 min: Christian Eriksen wins a corner for Spurs after a scuffed effort from just outside the area takes a deflection off a defender. Eriksen takes the corner short and is on hand to blast over from 25 yards after a brief passage of play in which Southampton failed to clear their lines.
29 min: Cedric puts the ball behind for a corner after good work from Eric Dier. Eriksen curls the ball to the near post, where Steven Davies hacks it out for a throw-in.
27 min: This match has been fairly scrappy and pell-mell so far, but no less entertaining for that. Both teams appear to be going all out for the win and Spurs are just about in the ascendency for now, but there’s been very little between the two sides.
24 min: Corrections and clarifications department: Unless Jon Moss got a very convincing Mike Dean mask for Christmas, it is the man from Wirral who is refereeing this match. I was unreliably informed by the news agencies that Moss was running the show tonight.
21 min: It was the turn of Southampton’s defenders to fall asleep there, with Alli reacting quickest after Sissoko’s cross was deflected up in the air off the back of Redmond. Virgil van Dijk mistimed his own leap as a result, enabling the unmarked Alli to send a nicely weighted looping header into the top corner from six yards. It was a fine effort, which the youngster did well to keep under the bar.
GOAL! SOUTHAMPTON 1-1 TOTTENHAM (Alli 19)
19 min: Dele Alli equalises with a header from the edge of the six-yard box, after a Moussa Sissoko cross had taken a deflection off the back of Redmond.
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17 min: More good play from Southampton, as Bertrand gallops down the left flank and drills the ball into the penalty area in the hope of picking out Redmond. Danny Rose is on hand to make the crucial interception and prevent Southampton from doubling their lead.
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14 min: Mousa Dembele is booked for a foul on Nathan Redmond, or else booked for dissent after he was penalised for fouling Redmond. There follows some more slapstick defending from Spurs, leading to a low diagonal Redmond drive that goes narrowly wide of Lloris’s far post.
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13 min: Speaking of wayward - Fraser Forster makes a dog’s breakfast of a clearance and his mis-kick sends the ball steepling high into the air and out for a Spurs thropw-in deep inside the Southampton half. Nothing comes of it, although the Saints goalkeeper’s attempt to look like he knew exactly what he was doing was quite amusing.
11 min: Spurs win a corner and it’s played short to Christian Eriksen. He attempts to whip the ball towards the far post, but catches it all wrong and his wayward effort drifts wide.
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9 min: More good play from Southampton, as Boufal wriggles through a couple of defenders on his way into the Spurs penalty area from the right with the ball on his toe. He’s eventually crowded off it, but there’s an element of the desperate and last-ditch about some of this Spurs defending.
7 min: Danny Rose attempts to cross into the Southampton penalty area from the left touchline, but his effort is blocked by Cedric. Southampton go forward again,m with Nathan Redmond threading a ball through the inside right for Jay Rodriguez to chase. He beats Jan Vertonghen for pace, but sends his diagonal effort well wide of the far post.
6 min: Southampton are employing a very heavy press from the front, making it night on impossible for the visitors to play the ball out from the back without making errors.
4 min: James Ward-Prowse was the provider there, having stood over the ball alongside Bertrand, who had won the free-kick from Wanyma. He lofted the ball towards the far post, where Van Dijk rose much higher than the two defenders nearest him to head past Hugo Lloris.
GOAL! SOUTHAMPTON 1-0 TOTTENHAM (Van Dijk 2)
2 min: What a start for Southampton. From the aforementioned free-kick, which was conceded by Victor Wanyama, the ball was swung into the Spurs penalty area. Unmarked, Virgil Van Dijk rose to power a header across the face of goal and inside the far post. Woeful defending by Spurs.
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Play is under way at St Mary's
1 min: Southampton get the ball rolling and immediately get the ball rolling. Almost immediately, they win a free-kick in line with the left side of the Spurs penalty for a foul on Ryan Bertrand.
Not long now ...
The teams emerge from their dressing rooms, line up in the tunnel and march out on to the pitch for the last of the pre-match formalities. Tottenham’s players are a vision in yellow shirts, shorts and socks, while their hosts wear their usual attire of red and white striped shirts, black shorts and red socks.
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No Toby Alderweireld for Spurs ...
The Belgian central defender misses out because he’s suffering from a virus, while Moussa Sissoko comes into the Tottenham midfield for Harry Winks. Southampton manager Claude Puel makes four changes from the team that beat Bournemouth, with Jose Fonte, James Ward-Prowse, Nathan Redmond and Steven Davis all returning to the starting line-up of a side that must play three matches in the next six days.
Southampton v Tottenham Hotspur line-ups
Southampton: Forster, Cedric, Fonte, van Dijk, Bertrand, Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Davis, Redmond, Rodriguez, Boufal.
Subs: Yoshida, Long, Tadic, Martina, Reed, Hojbjerg, Taylor.
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose, Dembele, Wanyama, Sissoko, Alli, Eriksen, Kane.
Subs: Son, Janssen, Vorm, Nkoudou, Wimmer, Winks, Davies.
Referee: Jon Moss (W Yorkshire)
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Season's greetings, sports fans ...
Tottenham travel to St Mary’s knowing that defeat will all but end their fairly slim chances of winning the title and leave them in fifth place in the Premier League, four points behind neighbours Arsenal, who currently occupy the final Champions League spot. With nine points viewer than their visitors, Southampton are back in eighth and come into tonight’s game on the back of their pre-Christmas win over Bournemouth. Saints defensive midfielder Oriol Romeu is available after a one-match spell on the naughty step after picking up five yellow cards, but his fellow midfielder Jordy Clasie is out with a groin injury. Striker Charlie Austin and defender Matt Targett are longer term absentees.
For Tottenham, who are looking to make it three wins on the bounce after victories over Burnley and Hull City, defenders Toby Alderweireld and Danny Rose, midfielder Mousa Dembele and striker Vincent Janssen are all available for selection after returning from injury. Kick-offis at 7.45pm (GMT), but we’ll here with team news and build-up long before that.
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