Southampton's second game of their Premier League season ended with a 2-1 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park, Richarlison scoring his second Toffees goal in two games.

Everton dominated the first half and looked half a yard quicker than Southampton from minute one.

In the 15th minute, the hosts took the lead from a free kick thanks to a  training ground move.

Leighton Baines played it short to ex Saints midfielder, Morgan Schneiderlin ​and he then flicked it through to another former Saint, Theo Walcott, to loft over Alex McCarthy and into the net. 

Southampton nearly equalised in the 24th minute when Cedric's 25-yard effort was spilled by Jordan Pickford and Danny Ings' rebound was somehow tipped onto the bar by Pickford.

With half an hour on the clock, Everton doubled their lead with Walcott whipping a cross into the box, which Richarlison headed into the bottom right corner.

Ings' first not enough

Saints started the second half much the better side and in the 54th minute it was 2-1, when James-Ward-Prowse's corner was flicked on by Mario Lemina and found Ings unmarked three yards out, to tap home for his first goal for Southampton. 

Walcott then thought he fired Everton into a 3-1 lead when he got on the end of Cenk Tosun's pull-back pass and fired into the bottom left corner, only for it to be ruled out for offside.

In the 68th minute Walcott had another great chance to extend Everton's lead when he play a lovely one two with Gylfi Sigurdsson,​before firing just wide of the left post.

Saints looked poor from defensive set pieces

The visitors looked susceptible to concede from set pieces as in the first 15 minutes they gave away four free kicks in dangerous positions. Three of them luckily were headed straight at McCarthy, however the fourth one saw Everton take the lead.

Southampton will need to tighten up and work on their defensive set pieces as this was a major factor in their loss, as they switched off for the first goal, which although it was a lovely training ground move could have been easily stopped.

Ings performance a positive for Saints

One player that was impressive for Southampton was Ings, who made a deadline day loan move from Liverpool.

The striker has had wretched luck with injuries over the past few seasons, which has limited him to 25 appearances in those the last three seasons. 

He was handed his full debut by Mark Hughes in the defeat at Goodison Park, but did not disappoint. 

He looked like he had a great deal of pace and stretched the Everton defence on a number of occasions.

He was denied a goal by Pickford early on, but in the second half he got the goal he deserved. 

The even more promising thing for Ings was that he played a full 90 minutes for the first time in a while.

Add the goal and this will hopefully give him the confidence to kick on and get back to his best. 

 

Lack of discipline 

One thing that was clear is Southampton had a lack of discipline, especially in the first half.

They picked up five bookings during the game of which three were given in the first half. 

It was surprising more of the Southampton squad were not booked, with them making 20 fouls during the game. 

This is something they will have to work on, otherwise bans will rack up very quickly for them.

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About the author
Adam Stenning
University Sports Journalism student, who has a real passion for sport especially Football. Am a huge Brighton and Hove Albion fan and season ticket holder there for the last eight years.