“Turned Over A New Leaf” “Deserves A Lot Of Credit” - These Southampton Fans Applaud Often Maligned Player

Southampton can certainly consider themselves unlucky to have not come out of Saturday’s Premier League clash with Arsenal with all three points to show for our efforts.

There was plenty of improvement on display from manager Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side and it seems we have used the November international break to our advantage, and the main question for fans is, have we now started to turn the corner finally or will this be another false dawn.

In any event, following the 2-2 draw where we saw goals from Danny Ings and James Ward-Prowse, one player, in particular, came in for significant praise – and it’s been a long time coming as centre-half Jack Stephens has certainly taken some pelters in more recent times.

The 25-year-old was making only his sixth appearance of the season, but he’s become more of a regular across November again and a number of fans felt his performance against Arsenal was far improved.

Yesterday it was clear to see that Ings and Stephens love playing for Saints as they played brillantly.

Boufal was very impressive when he came off the bench and has to start in the next game against Watford. #Saintsfc

— Greg Small (@GregSmallPT) November 24, 2019

Jack Stephens has proven himself. – Plays with courage
– Leads from the back
– Improved in the air
– Most importantly makes direct forward passes out of the back. Something our midfielders don't even do! #saintsfc

— Erik Franzo (@EFranzo17) November 24, 2019

Stephens, Bednarek and McCarthy all been excellent. And Bertrand.

#saintsfc

— Tom Holland (@tomholland28) November 23, 2019

The quality and quick thinking from Berty for Ingsy’s goal ???? Much maligned, Stephens deserves a lot of credit, fantastic since reintroduction. McCarthy commands his area well, justifying being #1 Improved display but so many chances spurned, should have been 3 pts #saintsfc pic.twitter.com/lHhWMvnGvp

— Dan Jarvis (@danjarvisSFC91) November 23, 2019

To be fair, Stephens has proper turned over a new leaf.

Him and Jan were immense today, goals were defensively suspicious but I think the 2nd was more Cedric than anything.#SaintsFC

— Ethan Evans (@EthanEvansSJ) November 23, 2019