DANNY Ings’ goal wasn’t enough to earn Saints a point as Everton ran out 2-1 winners at St Mary’s.
Here are five things we learned from the game:
1. No place like home:
The defeat to Everton cemented the club’s worse ever home start to a league season.
Saints have taken just one point from their opening six St Mary’s matches which came in a 1-1 draw with Manchester United.
2. Saints are now in a relegation scrap:
Saints are now three points adrift of Aston Villa and six points behind Newcastle and Everton.
Should Villa beat Wolves this afternoon then Hasenhuttl’s side really are staring down the barrel of a long, difficult season.
With matches against Arsenal and Watford coming up after the international break, things could get even worse for Saints.
3. Where were the substitutes?
There is no issue staring a match with three central defenders, but to leave them on the pitch for 90 minutes when you are trying to win a game is questionable.
When it got to 1-1, Everton boss Marco Silva knew the importance of a victory and brought on Alex Iwobi and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
This saw the Toffees take the lead which should have been the moment Hasenhuttl took off a defender for a striker.
Instead, he replaced Nathan Redmond for Che Adams and left things as they were in defence.
4. Danny Ings continued his good form:
The Saints striker got Saints back into the match shortly after half time with a tidy finish from close range.
It took his goal tally for the season to seven in all competitions.
If Saints are going to get out of trouble, then Ings is going to be absolutely pivotal to their efforts.
5. Jack Stephens deserves credit:
Stephens normally comes in for swathes of criticism when he plays for Saints, but he didn’t deserve to be on the losing team yesterday.
In a drab first half, Stephens was the only player trying to restore some order in the team by his constant communication.
He also made an excellent tackle to deny Cenk Tosun scoring after Tom Davies’ opener.
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