A late equaliser from Nathaniel Clyne rescued a point for Aston Villa in the West Midlands.
Southampton have lost ground on Premier League leaders Chelsea over the weekend after they were only able to salvage a late draw against struggling Aston Villa in Birmingham, with Paul Lambert’s hosts now having gone eight games without a win.
From the off at Villa Park it was the in form Saints, who had won four straight Premier League games without conceding a goal before kick-off here, who dominated possession and territory, but they struggled to create clear chances against well drilled centre back duo Ciaran Clark and Jores Okore.
Half chances came and went for the visitors before Villa took the lead against the run of play and with plenty of help from Saints goalkeeper Fraser Forster. A long kick over the top evaded the Southampton defence and Fraser Forster came charging out of his goal, misdjudging the ball and allowing Gabriel Agbonlahor to roll the ball into an empty net:
Villa allowed their visitors even more of the ball as the game ticked towards half time, but they got in at the break unscathed and navigated most of the second half successfully, with a ball flashed across the face of goal by centre back Jose Fonte the closest that Ronald Koeman’s side came to equalising.
Despite not creating any clear chances, however, Southampton were putting their hosts under huge amounts of pressure and it would eventually tell thanks to a goal from the best move of the match – Ryan Bertrand escaping down the left and squaring for his fellow full back Nathaniel Clyne to fire into the far corner:
It was Villa who seemed happiest with the point in the final stages as they soaked up some more Southampton pressure, but in the end it was a draw that does neither team a great deal of good in their battles at either end of the table.