Southampton 4 - 0 Newcastle United : Pelle's brace secures a great victory for Koeman's side

Southampton continued their good form with a 4-0 victory over Newcastle.

Graziano Pelle headed the Saints into the lead early on before adding a second after 20 minutes. Poor defending saw Jack Cork grab a third after the break, before Morgan Schneiderlin curled in a brilliant effort late on to seal the victory.

Southampton were dominant from the word go and could of took the lead within the first minute, skipper Fabricio Coloccini’s back pass to Tim Krul and the Dutchman’s attempted clearance comes off Shane Long but to Krul’s relief it goes wide. The home side should have had a penalty two minutes later, the ball over the top is met by Long but he was taken out by Krul when he looked to get the ball but replays showed that referee Chris Foy should have pointed to the spot.

Southampton eventually took a deserved lead after six minutes, Ryan Bertrand hooked a brilliant ball towards the back post and new striker Pelle was on hand to head it into the top corner. Southampton continued to pressurise their opposition with Pelle again coming close with his effort from the flank.

Eighteen minutes in Pelle added his and Southampton’s second. Mike Williamson attempted headed clearance fell to Pelle who played a good one-two with Tadic, before the Serbian unselfishly played it back to the striker who stroked it home with ease.

Newcastle’s first opportunity of the match didn’t come until quarter of a hour mark, a deflected pass found its way to Moussa Sissoko but his shot was straight at Fraser Foster who did well to keep his former employers out.

Southampton didn’t kick off the second period like they did the first but were still proving a handful, substitute Victor Wanyama attempted the spectacular scissor kick but it was the angle that let him down.

It wasn’t long until Southampton got their third and again it was poor Newcastle defending to blame, Mike Williamson wasn’t alive to the deflected pass which allowed Jack Cork to sneak in take it beyond Krul before sliding it into an empty net. They almost got their fourth just before the hour mark, a good move from Koeman’s side saw Tadic float a ball into the near post towards Pelle and the striker was just inches from claiming his hat trick.

Newcastle caused the home side no problems during the second period but they should have grabbed a consolation 13 minutes before the end, a goalmouth scramble saw the ball fall to Sissoko who showed great technique to lay it off to Riviere but his poor shot went wide.

Morgan Schneiderlin capped off a brilliant performance in extra-time with an excellent goal, a good flick from Pelle found James Ward-Prowse who played it over to Schneiderlin and the Frenchman made some space to curl a brilliant shot into the top corner.

This capped off an excellent performance from Ronald Koeman’s side who many people thought would struggle before the season started, the same can’t be said for Newcastle who poor once again and with the increasing pressure at St James’ Park it is hard to see Alan Pardew at the helm for much longer.