Mark Hughes and the Southampton boys headed to the Liberty Stadium yesterday evening to face Swansea City in the ultimate relegation six-pointer.
Both sides were perched on 33 points for the campaign going into the match and with the layout of the table, the prize for the winner was effectively survival. In a typically unflattering match given what was at stake – plenty of desire but little quality – Manolo Gabbiadini’s 72nd-minute winner was enough for all three points and even though we face Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in our curtain closer, the three-point advantage on Swansea means a hell of a goal difference switch is now needed for us to slip back into the drop zone.
They will have eyes on Huddersfield slipping up now as the goal difference needed to put us into danger needs a nine-goal swing to them. Even facing the title winners, that’s still some ask from Swansea in their match.
Our result does see West Bromwich Albion now confirmed for the Championship.
Liberty Stadium
Premier League
8/05/2018 8:45 pm
Attendance: 20858
Referee: Oliver
| Swansea City | Southampton | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gabbiadini (72) | |||||||
| Fabianski | McCarthy | ||||||
| Naughton | 75 | Bednarek | 68 | ||||
| Fernandez | Stephens | ||||||
| Mawson | Hoedt | ||||||
| Roberts | Soares | ||||||
| Ki Sung-yeung | Hojbjerg | ||||||
| King | 82 | Romeu | |||||
| Clucas | Bertrand | ||||||
| Olsson | 62 | Tadic | 83 | ||||
| A Ayew | Redmond | 64 | |||||
| J Ayew | Austin | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| van der Hoorn | Long | 64 | |||||
| Abraham | 62 | Carrillo | |||||
| Narsingh | 75 | Ward-Prowse | |||||
| Dyer | Gabbiadini | 68 | |||||
| Nordfeldt | McQueen | 83 | |||||
| Carroll | 82 | Sims | |||||
| Renato Sanches | Forster | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 11 | Goal attempts | 13 |
| 3 | On Target | 8 |
| 7 | Corners | 6 |
| 7 | Fouls | 15 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 53 | % | 47 |