Aston Villa edged past Southampton 1-0 at Villa Park as Steven Gerrard breathed a huge sigh of relief.
It wasn’t pretty but the home fans went home happy. For now.
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Jacob Ramsey’s scrappy first half goal was enough for Villa to grab their second win of the season as Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Southampton didn’t turn up and were totally off the pace.
Villa weren’t much better but Gerrard saw his side grind out the win to move on to seven points for the season, the same number that Saints have.
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Villa go back to basics: After a poor run of form they went back to an ultra-defensive system to get the draw against Man City last time out and they kept that solid look for this win. Gerrard’s side weren’t pretty to watch. At all. But John McGinn scrapping away in midfield and Mings and Konsa clearing everything with a safety first approach summed up their approach. Villa hardly created a chance aside from the rebound Ramsey stuck away. They were savvy, solid and smart. That was all that was needed.
Saints lack any kind of cutting edge: They wanted to sign a striker late in the summer window and you can see why. Saints had no cutting edge throughout the game and barely created a chance. Their young players did okay but what will disappoint Hasenhuttl most is that the experienced trio of Che Adams, James Ward-Prowse and Mohamed Elyounoussi all struggled massively. This was Southampton’s worst display of the season by some distance and with so many young players there will be a lot of ups and downs as their win against Chelsea have been followed up by defeats at Wolves and Villa.
Two teams who could struggle: This was not a great game. At all. And it underlined that both
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