Pelle as dangerous as ever
A powerful headed effort from Pelle late in the first-half cemented his position as the key goal scoring threat in the Southampton squad.
A prolific striker in the Dutch Eredivisie, the Italian managed 23 goals and 6 assists in 28 appearances for Dutch outfit Feyenoord and has now added his 19th goal for the Saints. Commanding in the air and with stylish finishing capabilities when the ball is at his feet, Pelle is the perfect hitman to capitalise on the creative service provided by Sadio Mane and Dusan Tadic.
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Bournemouth must stick to their style
Saints coach Ronald Koeman came out after the match to dub the first-half of play “the best he had seen all year”. What he did not directly mention was the level of resurgence among the visitors during the latter stages.
At the start of the season Bournemouth were turning heads with their enthusiasm and desire to press forward, regardless of the opposition, nearly snatching a point (or three) in a match against league elites Liverpool. In the time since then, Howe has somewhat tweaked his approach to accommodate the severe losses in personnel, but in doing so has sacrificed but brought Bournemouth to the Premier League in the first place – ambition.
In Sunday’s post-game interview, Howe described, with disdain, what was a game of two halves, claim that “the first half was everything we wanted the first half to be” – further insinuating that for Bournemouth to have a successful (by their measure) season, they will need to play their brand of football.
“Technically we showed we really could compete at this level in the second half, some of our passing and movement was of a really high level”, said Howe.
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