Southampton climbed out of the Premier League bottom three with a convincing win over a dismal Aston Villa at Villa Park.
The result sees the Saints move up a place to 17th in the table as they leapfrog Villa, who drop to 18th after a fourth consecutive defeat.
The visitors controlled the game from start to finish and capitalised on some shambolic defending to register their biggest win since their 3-1 victory over Wolves in April.
Danny Ings opened the scoring, tapping in from close range after Shane Long’s initial effort was saved by Villa keeper Tom Heaton.
And Long could have added a second before Jack Stephens met James Ward-Prowse’s corner to double Saints’ lead with a towering header into the bottom right corner.
Ings punished Marvelous Nakamba’s loose control to add Southampton’s third after the break.
And while Jack Grealish’s superb effort flew into the top right corner for the hosts to reduce the arrears it was not enough to prevent Saints from claiming their fifth win of the season.
If Villa manager Dean Smith had hoped that their Carabao Cup win over Liverpool’s youthful side on Tuesday would raise morale, there was little in this performance which will have encouraged him.
Villa’s struggles this term have been underpinned by two main problems, failing to capitalise on winning positions and on occasions delivering abject displays where they have been well beaten.
This was the latter.
While they conceded late goals in narrow defeats by Liverpool and Chelsea and possibly merited more than the point they collected at Manchester United, from the moment Ings put Southampton ahead, Villa looked shorn of confidence.
And all three goals were easily avoidable.
Bjorn Engels was caught out for the first with Nathan Redmond’s clipped ball over the top allowing Long to outstrip him for pace.
Stephens was allowed to run towards the near post unchecked for the second and Nakamba’s poor control compounded a defensive horror show for the hosts.
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Source – BBC
