Point For Pochettino – Southampton vs Everton

Mauricio Pochettino’s first game in charge of Southampton ended in a hand-earned goalless draw against 5^th placed Everton.

All talk surrounding the game was focused on Friday’s dismissal of Nigel Adkins and the reception which his successor would receive for his first game at St. Mary’s. Despite many expecting a ‘Benitez at the Bridge’ style welcome party, the Saints fans gave a polite, if unenthusiastic, greeting for the Argentine.

Things started encouragingly on the pitch too, with Rickie Lambert’s low cross from the right almost finding the net via a desperate clearance attempt from Phil Jagielka.  As chants of “One Nigel Adkins” rang throughout the stadium, Southampton had several more chances to take the lead with Gaston Ramirez and Rickie Lambert seeing their long range efforts at goal stopped by the keeper and the post respectively. However, the best chance of the first half fell to centre-half Jos Hooiveld who, when clean through on goal, shot straight at Tim Howard.

Hooiveld with the chance to put Saints ahead – credit: @officialsaints

From the evidence of the first half it was clear that Pochettino had tried to instill in his players the aggressive, high tempo style that followers of his previous club Espanyol had become used to. However, things slowed down after the break and it was the visitors who had the most possession, with Marouane Fellaini forcing Artur Boruc into action twice in quick succession. Despite a Rickie Lambert header grazing the crossbar on 83 minutes, the half firmly belonged to Everton with substitutes Anichebe and Mirallas both having chances to score.  Everton’s best opportunity though fell to Nikica Jelavic, who after receiving a squared ball from Anichebe could only air-kick from seven yards out. Surprisingly, the most memorable moment of the match came when Saints winger Jason Puncheon left the field in order to go to the toilet, much to the amusement of both sets of supporters.

Writer’s Comment:  Pochettino looked a little disappointed at the end of the match; he shouldn’t have been. Southampton could, and perhaps should have been 3-0 up at the end of the first half, with only the post and some good goalkeeping from Tim Howard keeping the scores level. The next few games are critical for Pochettino. A couple more solid performances like this one and a relegation battle may be a thing of the past. Conversely a couple of bad performances and the name Nigel Adkins will almost certainly come back to haunt him.

Man Of The Match: Victor Anichebe