Southampton v Tottenham: Premier League – Live | Premier League

Paul Fourmy keeps the faith:

“Why are they leaving? Do they know who we are? They win 5-4”

It’s the spirit.

40 minutes: Armstrong almost scores! Dibling on the ball passes from the left to his skipper. The race is perfect, but the finish is not. Just wide from about five yards.

37 minutes: I love the way Spence impacts the game, on both ends of the court, across left and right. He plays a great game. But here comes Southampton with Manning chasing a ball down the middle to the left but he is beaten and gives away a free kick.

36 minutes: Fernandes is booked for pushing Bergvall onto the post as they all jostled for space before Son’s corner. No penalty though. Once the corner is taken, it’s on the way, but Spurs come again. Maddison lifts a lob-wedge style ball into the mixer. It’s cleared away.

34 min: Another poor pass from Southampton from a set-piece, this time a corner, is easily dealt with and Spurs counter in a flash. The move ends with Son firing at the angle and McCarthy doing well to tip it over the bar.

32 minutes: Oh, half a chance for a fifth. Solanke couldn’t quite organize his feet as he controlled a cross from the right. He almost wrestled the space to shoot, but the ball got stuck under him.

31 minutes: The Saints free kick was poor. Right next to Forster. Spurs back on the ball.

29 min: It’s amazing how easily Tottenham cut through Southampton’s lines. It looks like a training session. Oh, but there’s a rare mistake from a man in blue and Bergvall, after giving the ball away, makes a mistake and receives a yellow card. Here, the Saints have an opportunity to clip one in the mixer from center to left, about 35 yards out.

27 min: Udogie is receiving treatment as he was lifted down into the structure. Martin uses this break to talk to his players. As he does so, more fans pour out of the stadium. What on earth can they do here? They would do well not to see double digits by the end of the game.

Udogie is replaced by Porro.

GOAL! Southampton 0-4 Tottenham (Sarr, 26)

23 minutes: Kamaldeen Sulemana looks absolutely despondent on the bench. You feel for him, you really do. It’s not his fault the whole team is a mess.

21 minutes: Maddison shoots over the bar. Several Tottenham players are lined up waiting to shoot. Maddison’s free-kick was delivered badly. Spence kept the pace alive as he drove along the town line and crossed. Son mistimed his volley but the ball was laid back for Maddison on the edge of the area. Instead of shooting the first time, he took a touch, which meant he had to grab his effort.

20 minutes: Kulusevski shows great footwork to dribble past two players inside the box and get a shot away. It is blocked and goes out in a corner. Tottenham seem to score from every attack.

19 min: “They look shocked,” says Joe Cole on comms. He is talking about the Southampton bench.

18 min: A decent chance for Armstrong gives Southampton fans something to cheer about. He started the move by picking up a decent pass between the lines. He played it out to the right and continued his run, meeting a clipped header. The header was on target, but tame and straight at Forster.

16 minutes: Martin has hooked Sulemana for Wood-Gordan as he switches to a back three. Not sure it will make any difference. Apparently some fans are already leaving.

14 minutes: It’s embarrassing. Russell Martin looks intently into a screen in front of him, but it’s just sloppy defense. Son once again had the freedom of St Mary’s. The cross was not dealt with and there was no one in red and white to stop Kulusevski tapping in Tottenham’s third.

GOAL! Southampton 0-3 Tottenham (Kulusevski, 14)

13 minutes: This is now a mountain to climb for the home side and their boss could be out the door in the morning. They have looked so passive, so weak. That cross from deep was not dealt with and the only man paying attention was Son. Southampton’s defenders were asleep.

GOAL! Southampton 0-2 Tottenham (Sun, 12)

11 min: Southampton coughs up too easily. Despite the five-man midfield, there is no structure and Spurs can push and pinch it back at will. Kulusevski drifts from his wing and across the defensive line.

9 minutes: Sarr finds Son with a ripping ball across. Spence is in support and then Kulusevski on the overlap down the left shoots a low cross that bounces out for a corner. Quick work from the men in powder blue. The corner routine didn’t quite work, but Spurs have it back and Son shoots from the left side of the box. Straight on McCarthy, but it looks bleak for the home side.

7 minutes: A dive into the box by Walker-Peters from the right is too deep and Tottenham clear up. They look less rushed on the ball than Saints so far. It already feels like the home team are chasing it. A stiff late challenge from Aribo catches Maddison and the goalscorer goes down clutching his ankle.

5 minutes: Spence beats a tackler down the right. What a dream start, it’s shaping up to be. A throw down the left flank causes Sulemana to run into the Tottenham box, but he has cleared the ball.

3 minutes: Southampton look startled. Manning gives a soft foul about halfway. They need to get a hold of themselves, but here Son comes to the left and combines with Maddison. Gray and Sarr on the ball. Spurs look good.

1 min: Wow! What a goal. Spence, in his first start for Spurs, gathered on the turn, drove and then slid a wonderful ball in for Maddison, who kept his composure to slot home. Great movement of the ball and a really good finish.

GOAL! Southampton 0-1 Tottenham (Maddison, 1)

We’re going away! Saints in their classic red and white, Spurs in baby blue.

This has a bit of a desperate feel to it. Both executives at TNT did their best to mask their anxiety (at least that’s my pop psychology). They know that the ice beneath their feet is thinning.

The players are now on their way out of the tunnel. All the noise, all the pressure, all the injuries and absences, this could be anything.

Young Tyler Dibling gets plenty of praise in the build-up. The 18-year-old is apparently on Manchester United’s radar with a rumored £21million offer on the table.

Russell Martin says he’s been working on “a lot of things” this week. It is encouraging.

Ange Postecoglou says he needs “another performance of ours that reflects the kind of football we want to play”.

Southampton’s boss appears to be the more southern of the two.

Ivan Victor has written in and taken issue with some of my wording:

“Perhaps this is being pedantic (I don’t think so), with 8 or 9 players out injured and a bench of five academy players, it is difficult to be able to pick your preferred starting XI.”

No, I don’t think it’s pedantic Ivan. I think that is completely fair. You’re right, it hasn’t been ideal for Big Ange.

History is not on Southampton’s side.

They have won just one of their last eight games against Tottenham in all competitions with three draws and four defeats.

But we must expect goals. The last three meetings between these two have produced a total of 16 goals.

Perhaps the best statistic is that Southampton have scored in each of their last 15 league games against Spurs. Fifteen!

My colleague Luke McLaughlin wrote this week that Spurs’ style seems unsuitable.

He took the 3-4 reverse at home to Chelsea as an example and asked, “is it sustainable to play with all guns blazing all season as if the clock is about to ring for the end of the lunch break?”

This is not the first time this has been asked of a Postecoglou team. I wonder though if Tottenham fans would accept anything other than broken football?

Great Ange does not hold back. After calling out Timo Werner, stating that the German’s performance against Rangers this week was “not acceptable”, the Tottenham boss has claimed he has no time for “bruised egos”.

It’s a heavy approach, but maybe that’s what’s needed. A bit of a kick in the back to kick-start an exuberant season.

We’ll find out if it worked.

Tottenham team

Southampton team

Preamble