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 this visit to The Hawthorns. West Bromwich Albion are a team transformed under Tony Pulis, with this 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 another Saido Berahino goal. There were less than two minutes gone when the Albion striker took his tally for the season to 17 – incredibly 15 of them have come at home – and it was a goal to remember. The only downside for Albion, who face Aston Villa twice in the space of five days next week, was the sight of Berahino limping off later in the afternoon.
Koeman’s tactical changes early in the first half brought Southampton back into the game but they looked toothless up front and Ben Foster, the Albion keeper, enjoyed a quiet afternoon against a team that have scored only once in their last five league matches. When Graziano Pellè, who has gone 10 league games without a goal, shot tamely into the arms of Foster six minutes from time it summed up Southampton’s day.
Albion could not have wished for a better start. The game was only 70 seconds old when Berahino, with a strike of sublime quality, put the home team ahead. Chris Brunt’s diagonal free-kick, from just inside the Southampton half, was headed clear by Maya Yoshida but only as far as Berahino, who was lurking unmarked on the edge of the area and thumped a first-time left-footed volley high into the top corner.
Southampton looked sluggish and it was not until Koeman, who made five changes from the side that lost 2-0 at home against Liverpool last Sunday, scrapped his three-man defence that things got better. Florin Gardos made way for Eljero Elia in the 25th minute, Southampton switched to 4-4-2 and Albion suddenly had a game on their hands.
Yet for all their possession, Southampton created little. The visitors’ only notable chance in the first half fell to Sadio Mané, who took Morgan Schneiderlin’s glorious raking pass on his chest but snatched at his chance, drilling over from inside the area. At the other end, Albion could have doubled their lead on the half-hour mark but Craig Gardner, under pressure from José Fonte, was unable to get any purchase on his shot after breaking through the middle.
The main source of frustration for the travelling supporters was Albion’s perceived time-wasting. Southampton fans started counting to 10 every time the ball went out of play and it was no real surprise when Foster was booked early in the second half for taking too long to take a goal-kick after Schneiderlin’s free-kick, from an acute angle, had flashed past the goalkeeper’s far post.
With Berahino off the pitch and Youssouf Mulumbu, a midfielder, on in his place, Albion’s sporadic attacking threat rested on the shoulders of Brown Ideye, who had a brief sight of goal at the start of the second half but wanted too many touches and the moment was gone.
Southampton continued to control the game but goalscoring opportunities remained at a premium. Ryan Bertrand broke down the left and delivered a low centre that skidded across the six-yard box, eluded Pellè, bounced off Brunt and somehow ended up behind rather than in the Albion net. A rare Albion attack saw Darren Fletcher blaze over in the 80th minute before Pellè, latching onto Schneiderlin’s header, stabbed the ball into the grateful arms of Foster.
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