Che Adams has Southampton flying high but Sheffield United slump again
Southampton #Southampton
Five months ago, it was here where the curtain came down on the most spectacular of seasons for Sheffield United but, after succumbing to a seventh successive defeat, it may also prove the ignominious spot where they sustained irreparable damage in their fight for top-flight survival.
Chris Wilder will not throw in the towel any time soon but, after pulling his players off the canvas last weekend, Southampton wiped the floor with United, who have a solitary point to their name. No team has taken fewer than four points from their opening 12 Premier League fixtures and avoided relegation.
Southampton treated their 2,000 returning fans to a mini masterclass in what they do so well under Ralph Hasenhüttl, harrying the visitors into mistakes, forcing the opposition into uncomfortable pockets and then picking them off at will. Sheffield United could not live with Southampton’s intensity and in the end they were fortunate to avoid a true hiding, with the returning Danny Ings and the captain, James Ward-Prowse, going close to adding to their tally.
Hasenhüttl strayed on to the pitch to celebrate when Nathan Redmond caressed a shot into the far corner of Aaron Ramsdale’s net to cap a comfortable victory seven minutes from time, after goals by Che Adams, the former Sheffield United striker, and the midfielder Stuart Armstrong. Last week Wilder bristled when the line of questioning turned to Adams, who left Bramall Lane for Birmingham four years ago, so it was perhaps inevitable the striker would propel Southampton to victory here, opening the scoring before Armstrong, with the help of kind deflections off John Egan and Phil Jagielka, doubled the hosts’ advantage with an hour played.
Southampton’s first goal was symptomatic of the kind of afternoon Wilder endured. It was a tragicomedy from a Sheffield United perspective. Ward-Prowse fizzed in a free-kick, which was initially cleared by Jagielka. Jannik Vestergaard and Jan Bednarek, Southampton’s mean centre-back pairing, kept the ball alive and it dropped for Adams, who freely roamed towards the front post, where he prodded in to beat Ramsdale from close range.
For the second, Egan had helped keep a hungry Southampton at bay but could not prevent Armstrong’s drilled shot pinballing off him en route to goal. Wilder was visibly angry but things went from bad to worse when the substitute Redmond cut inside George Baldock, played a neat give-and-go with Oriol Romeu and steered home to put the gloss on a seventh win in 10 matches.