Premier League 2019/20: Tottenham 2-1 Southampton - 5 Talking Points

#4 Southampton were all bark, no bite in the second half

Southampton's attackers like Sofiane Boufal were unable to make the most of their possession today

While Southampton utterly bossed the second half of today’s game thanks to their numerical advantage following Serge Aurier’s dismissal, it’s hard to imagine that Saints boss Ralph Hassenhuttl will be happy with their performance. Possession is all well and good – Southampton enjoyed 59% of it through the entire game and that figure was much higher in the second half – but only if you actually do something with it.

That wasn’t the case for the Saints today. Despite having 14 attempts on goal, Southampton only managed 6 shots on target, and the only times that Hugo Lloris was really tested in the second half both came from set-pieces; James Ward-Prowse’s beautiful free-kick, which was tipped over the bar, and Maya Yoshida’s bullet header which was also saved brilliantly by the French keeper.

Too many times, we saw the likes of Nathan Redmond, Sofiane Boufal and Ryan Bertrand waste possession, and while Danny Ings did well to harry Tottenham’s defence, particularly in the early going, outside of his goal – which was presented to him by Lloris – he didn’t really find himself with any gilt-edged chances in front of the net.

Is this something that should worry Hassenhuttl? Perhaps. Southampton have scored 7 goals in their 7 games thus far this season, and only Watford and Newcastle – the bottom two sides – along with Crystal Palace, Everton and Brighton have scored less.

For Saints fans, the return of exciting attacker Moussa Djenepo – who already has two goals and likely would’ve scored Spurs’ defence – probably can’t come soon enough following today’s toothless display.