After Southampton took the lead in the first half, they became more active in the second half.
Control the midfield, lure the opponent to attack, and then continuously launch fast breaks.
Although Otamendi was injured and came off the field shortly after the start of the second half, and Noriya sent on Font and Bailly to partner, Southampton's defense still did not have many problems.
Seeing that his own offense was still unable to open up the situation, Van Gaal had to make adjustments. He first replaced Di Maria with Mkhitaryan in order to strengthen his breakthrough ability in the middle of the frontcourt. However, after a few minutes,
, Van Persie was injured and came off the field. In desperation, he could only replace Van Persie with Herrera and put Rooney into the center position...
However, although Rooney started out as a center forward, this season he has played most of the games in the attacking midfielder and central midfielder positions. It would be too difficult to let him play as a center forward at this time and expect him to perform well.
.
With no other forward on hand, Van Gaal could only replace Mata with Fellaini, allowing the 1.9-meter-plus Fellaini to play center forward - this is what his predecessor Moyes often did.
thing……
Unfortunately, such an attack has no effect.
Instead, in the 69th minute of the second half, Mane received a pass from De Bruyne and passed it to Vardy in the penalty area. Vardy's shot bounced off the goal post, and Mane followed up and made a quick addition.
The shot scored and Southampton sealed the victory 2-0!
This was also the final score. Although Southampton didn't seem to win too much, it was enough to win this game.
In the other two games, Chelsea were as tough as ever. They defeated Newcastle 2-0 at home and continued to lead Southampton by five points, while Manchester City encountered Waterloo. They drew with Everton away from home and were beaten by
While Chelsea was two points away, they were only three points ahead of Southampton...
And there will be a make-up game in the middle of the next week.
Southampton plays at home against Everton, who just drew with Manchester City.
"We are very grateful to Everton for drawing with Manchester City, but we still have to fight for victory in this make-up match." Many Southampton fans responded this way during interviews.
Making up the match at this time is a bit tiring for the Southampton players, but for the Everton players, aren't they also very tired?
In the last match against Manchester City, they had to exert all their strength to achieve this. They will face Southampton just three days later, and their main players' physical fitness is definitely insufficient.
And when it comes to rotation, their foundation is not as high as Southampton's.
In this game, Noriya did use rotation. The goalkeeper and two full-backs were still the main players. The center back was replaced by Bailly and Font as partners. Otamendi, who left the field due to injury in the last game, rested, and midfielder Matti
Qi and Schneiderlin replaced Casemiro and Coutinho, and the forwards used Perisic and Suarez to replace Mane and Lukaku.
However, such a lineup is still difficult for Everton to resist.
The Manchester City fans who watched this game were very depressed to see that Everton, who had previously fought bravely against Manchester City, performed sluggishly in this game.
Their veteran Eto'o performed well in the last round of the league, but this round almost disappeared under the close pressure of the young Bailly. Other positions were also suppressed by Southampton. Under De Bruyne's instigation
Below, Schneiderlin's performance seemed quite outstanding. He kept running in the midfield, catching the ball, and then passing the ball out, making Southampton's offense start to become sharper.
However, Everton's defense performed well. They withstood several threatening attacks from Southampton and persisted until the 38th minute. Perisic broke through and got a corner kick, and De Bruyne took the corner kick.
, Suarez grabbed the first spot from the front and shook his head to attack the goal. The ball changed direction and quickly flew into the dead center of the goal!
For Southampton games, after they take the lead, the next game will be easier to handle.
Ten minutes after the start of the second half, Vardy also scored. This was a standard Vardy-style goal. Cancelo passed from the right to the back of the penalty area, and Perisic grabbed the first header to ferry the ball.
In the middle, Vardy followed up and scored immediately, scoring his 20th league goal this season.
Although it is still a little worse than Suarez's goals last season, the efficiency of twenty goals in twenty rounds is also extremely outstanding!
The most rare thing is that apart from one big four, Vardy only scored twice. His goals were distributed in fifteen games. Such goals can often bring better benefits to the team.
Three points.
Before the end of the game, Bailly received a header from De Bruyne's corner kick, locking the score at 3-0. Southampton successfully won the make-up victory, tied with Manchester City in points, and was one step away from Chelsea.
The difference is only two points!
"Southampton launched a fierce pursuit! I don't know if Chelsea can withstand it at this time... Facing Southampton's pursuit, any team will be a little panicked."
After the game, the media all lamented that Southampton is indeed a strong team now. Before, it seemed that it was up to eleven points behind. It was only a few rounds ago, and it was only two points behind!
But sometimes the points gap can be deceiving. When they were 11 points behind Chelsea, they had two games in hand!
It's just that being able to win all the games in the minor leagues is also a skill.
Chelsea didn't say anything about this. They couldn't say it was wrong for Southampton to win. The championship is there, so just fight for it based on your ability.
What they have to do is use their performance to prove that Chelsea has nothing to worry about.
Three days later, the 22nd round of the league.
Ji Ya continued to rotate some players in the game, and in this game, Southampton once again withstood the test. Newcastle's recent performance is very good, and they also showed their own performance against Southampton at home.
All strength - after all, they lost so miserably in the first round, they didn't want to be bloodbathed by Southampton in the second round.
They controlled Southampton's offense well. Vardy and Lukaku, who started this game, failed to score. However, Mane stood up at this time and scored a goal in each half.
, helped Southampton beat Newcastle 2-1 away from home!
Chelsea had a big victory. They relied on Costa and Oscar to score twice, as well as Schurrle's goal to sweep ninth-placed Swansea 5-0 in the away game and continue to be in third place in the standings.
Smiling at all sentient beings from a single position.
And Manchester City continued to pull their hips. They lost to Arsenal in this round, which opened a three-point gap between them and Southampton. From leading Southampton by five points to falling behind Southampton by three points, it only took them
Just four rounds of competition...
After all, they only won one game in these four rounds.
