Southampton vs Tottenham Hotspur Player Ratings – Spurs bury Southampton in a flurry of goals

Tottenham Hotspur were nothing but ready to take on the relegation battling, bottom ranked side Southampton to get back to winning ways while Southampton were eyeing to cause an upset akin to Ipswich and Crystal Palace. Southampton saw the return of veteran Alex McCarthy for this game, while Tottenham gave a first Premier League start of the season to Djed Spence and Lucas Bergvall. With both managers having a similar mentality towards the game and both teams having not kept a cleansheet in the last five games, it was all set to be an end to end, high goal scoring feature.

Tottenham were off to an electric start after James Maddison scored within 37 seconds after kick-off. Within ten minutes after the opener, Son doubled the lead with a deft finish into the bottom corner. Spurs scored again after Southampton defensive calamity gifted Spurs the third goal after Kulusevski taps a deflection off a blocked shot. Sarr added another one after he danced elegantly into the box and completed the move with a smooth finish into the centre of the box. Maddison concluded the half with the fifth goal of the game, lashing the ball into the corner at an acute angle.

Tottenham surprisingly became passive in the second half, conceding half chances at regular intervals. While Southampton occasionally had some threatening chances, it was not enough to overturn such a big score. Spurs also made enough rotations so that some of their star players get enough rest for the upcoming gruelling schedule.

Southampton Player Ratings vs Tottenham Hotspur

Goalkeeper

McCarthy: 4.5/10 – A powerless performance, as he was let down by his defence and had to concede five.

Defenders

Walker Peters: 6.5/10 – The Tottenham academy graduate was one of the shining lights for the Saints, as his dribbling and shooting caused some trouble for the defenders.

Bednarek: 4/10 – A horrendous display, struggling to keep up with Tottenham attackers, thereby becoming a liability.

Harwood Bellis: 5/10 – One good attempt at goal, but other than that, largely ineffective.

Manning: 5/10 – Despite making some good attacking runs occasionally, he was overrun defensively.

Midfielders

Dibling: 6.5/10 – He showed what he is capable of with some flashes of brilliance but it was not totally impactful.

Aribo: 5.5/10 – A quiet performance, unable to create good chances to fight back.

Downes: 6/10 – One of the better performers for Southampton, but could not cause a huge impact.

Fernandes: 5/10 – Unnecessary booking during a corner set-piece situation. Scored a goal but it got chalked off for offside.

Forwards

Armstrong: 5/10 – He made some committing runs into the box, but it was not sufficient as he was not clinical enough to convert them.

Sulemana: 4/10 – Got subbed off within 15 minutes as a part of tactical switch from Russell Martin.

Substitutes

Wood: 5/10

Sugawara: 5.5/10

Archer: 5/10

Manager

Russell Martin: 4/10 – Another bad result, as his team completely imploded in the first half to an irreparable extent. While the second half saw some improvement, it was too little and too late.

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Tottenham Hotspur Player Ratings vs Southampton

Goalkeeper

Forster: 6.5/10 – The former Southampton goalkeeper did not really have anything to do tonight, as Southampton failed to trouble him at all.

Defenders

Spence: 7.5/10 – The full back set the tone for the game with a brilliant assist for the opening goal for Maddison. He maintained that level after getting shifted to leftback when Udogie got injured.

Gray: 7/10 – The versatile youngster has not looked out of place at centreback too, as he dealt with anything that came at him comfortably.

Dragusin: 7/10 – A composed display, making some slide tackles to cut off passes and stop attacks.

Udogie: 5/10 – The left back got subbed off in the first half itself because of an injury, thereby not being able to cause an impact in the game.

Midfielders

Sarr: 8/10 – A composed finish after a surging run showed his maturity, a fine performance from the young midfielder.

Bergvall: 6/10 – A good defensive performance but got booked because of wrong decision making.

Maddison: 9/10 – A magnificient performance from the midfielder, scoring during the opening seconds and the closing seconds of the first half.

Forwards

Kulusevski: 7.5/10 – A lively performance from the winger and he capped it off with a tap-in.

Son: 8/10 – The South Korean was magnificient, scoring once and assisting twice in the game. He got subbed off at half-time as part of rotation and rest for upcoming games.

Solanke: 6.5/10 – A surprisingly quiet performance for the striker despite the game having so many goals.

Substitutes

Porro: 6/10

Johnson: 6/10

Dorrington: 6/10

Werner: 6/10

Lankshear: 6/10

Manager

Ange Postecoglou: 8/10 – A flawless performance from his team, as they hit hard in one half and rotated his starters to play it safe, avoid injuries and protect the lead in the second half.

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