Divine Intervention

Wednesday 15th March 2023: Premier League: St. Mary’s: Southampton vs Brentford

As I returned to the city of my university days, for the first time in years I was expecting to see my beloved bees swagger to a simple victory, against a Saints team rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table and seemingly destined for the drop.

The final scoreline, 2-0 to the Bees, will make it look like a simple victory in the record books, but if Saints has a striker capable of slotting simple chances home they could have won 6 or 7-0 with the chances they created.

Just 20 goals in the 27 games they had played before this match tells you everything you need to know.

Lacking A Striker

The hosts took a little while to get going, with Brentford actually managing a couple of early half chances. Though once they realised their visitors were struggling to string more than a couple of passes together in attack they seemed to grow in confidence and began to threaten on the break.

With these early exchanges out of the way and with both teams having felt out the flow of the game it was the hosts who solidified dominance of the ball.

They were unable to turn their possession into chances that troubled David Raya because no-one wanted to make the runs into the box that would see them get on the end of the crosses being fired in, or allow them to be first to any loose balls.

They even passed up a couple of simple tap-ins. First by not having a willing runner ready to meet a sumptuous deep cross from James Ward-Prowse. Then in the 20th minute Mohamed Elyounoussi failed to punish Raya for dithering on the ball in the box.

The Bees’ keeper was given until the rapture to clear his lines when all it would’ve taken was a tiny touch of pressure to dispossess him and secure the simplest finish imaginable from 3 yards out.

Elyounoussi came close to making up for his mistake within 60 seconds, but his shot from 6 yards out was cleared off the line by Ben Mee with Raya prone on the grass.

The Norwegian would let another chance slip through his fingers on the half-hour mark, having been picked out in space at the back post by a perfect slide-rule ball across the box by Kamaldeen Sulemana. Unable to get a telling touch on the ball this profligacy would soon be punished.

Before I talk about how Brentford punished their hosts though there is just time to mention the chances Saints created in the final 10 minutes of the first half.

Carlos Alcaraz fired narrowly over the bar as Saints poured forward to take advantage of a poor pass by Christian Norgaard and that’s it. The hosts had their visitors pinned back into their penalty area but were unable to turn possession and position into chances and goals.

Both teams had lacked a cutting edge in the final third during the first-half. For the Bees this was down to a lack of concerted periods of possession. For the Saints it was down to a lack of guile and being devoid of the confidence to try once the ball reached that area of the pitch.

Divine intervention would have been needed to see the Saints score. Brentford needed no such help though and despite being firmly on the back foot throughout most of the half, they were the team who ended it ahead on the scoresheet.

How It Should Be Done

The visitors took the lead into the break thanks to who else but Ivan Toney, ghosting in at the far post to toe-poke home a corner from mere inches out. That’s the predatory instinct that the hosts had been missing and Brentford would show it just one more time in the match.

Thankfully though this was all they needed as Saints threw themselves at us all half, without causing our defenders a sleepless second, let alone a sleepless night. The ball did find itself at the feet of one or other of the Saint’s strikers many a time throughout the half, but not once did it look likely that they would finish off a chance.

The second Bees’ goal and the final nail in Southampton’s coffin came via the boot of Yoane Wissa in the final of seven minutes of injury time. Gavin Bazuma’s goal-kick was headed back towards him from half-way, then helped further on by Toney.

Wissa took the ball in his stride 40 yards from goal and, with the saint’s defence scattered to the four corners of the city, he advanced to the edge of the box before slipping the ball under Bazuma’s body. Scoring with the last kick of the match

It was the ultimate sucker punch from the visitors having been spent most of the half defending for their lives, but that’s what happens when you refuse to take your chances. Your opponents will be clinical with theirs and leave your home with the full 3 points.

Sinking Feeling

In the months since this game Southampton’s relegation to the Championship has been confirmed and with a game of the season left they are confirmed to finish bottom of the table.

However, even as the final whistle blew on this match I had that sinking feeling when it came to their chances of avoiding the drop.

It was crystal clear that it would take divine intervention to stop the Saints sinking through the Premier League trapdoor.

Just 20 goals scored from 28 games is a pitiful return and with how few chances they had been able to fashion in this match, despite their dominance of possession, I failed to see how they would increase that number at all.

Going into the final day they have scored a league low of 32 goals from 37 games. This is the reason the Saints are going down.