Southampton 2 Leicester City 3: Fatawu the orchestrator in crazy comeback
Winless Southampton and a Leicester side who have had their fair share of good times at St Mary's. You'd have thought our luck, and efforts, were running out based on the half time score and first half performance. But supporting Leicester City is bonkers. Strap in.
It's almost five years since the record breaking 9-0 win at St Mary's. A lot has changed for both clubs since. From the goalscorers that day, only Vardy remains and from the starting line up, just he, Ndidi and Ricardo are left. And the latter can't get a look in.
Leicester faced a Southampton side still hunting their first win in a game that felt like a six pointer with its relegation battle tag.
This was never going to be a repeat or anywhere near as crazy a game, right? But our luck away at Southampton has held fast. Even today, against all odds in the end.
It could have swung a very different way had Southampton taken their chances, or Faes succeeded in trying to head past Hermansen, or if Ayew’s shirt pull was spotted. But Leicester took home all three points.
The experimental tinkering to discover Steve Cooper’s best team or slot the preferred players in continued. This time Oliver Skipp kept Harry Winks on the bench again and Bilal El Khannouss started in place of Jordan Ayew.
Facundo Buonanotte started too despite his travel with the Argentina squad midweek. It was a formation that looked a little more attacking minded but still lacked the one attacking player everybody wanted: Abdul Fatawu.
If you've been tracking the script so far, this looked to be staying on brand. A slow, frustrating opening from Steve Cooper's side. Whatever the players who remained worked on during the international break, it didn't appear to be defensive training based on the manner in which Southampton took the lead.
The home side capitalised early, Cameron Archer the goalscorer. It was pathetic defending however you want to analyse it and the sluggish start we couldn't afford. Martin's side smelled blood and doubled their lead shortly after, Joe Aribo the scorer. Both goals came from our right flank and both featured a general lack of marking.
El Khannouss was unlucky not to pull one back in the first half, a wonderful shot coming off the post and somehow not going in. He and Buonanotte had been trying to get things going for the Foxes.
Cooper’s substitutions have rightly been questioned at times this season but he got them spot on for the second half. Winks came on at the break and Fatawu followed and Ayew ten minutes later.
All three played their part in the turnaround, all of them having a hand in or getting a goal to ensure Southampton were left stunned and the away end featured Roy Cropper trolling the Saints and limbs, limbs everywhere.
This win gave the Foxes two new records; our latest ever Premier League winner and the first time we’ve come back from a two goal deficit to win in the Premier League as well.
Southampton must really hate us, hey.
Photo: Becky Taylor
Fatawu or bust
Are you not entertained should be what Abdul was saying to the away end post match when he and Jordan Ayew were pushed forward to have their moment with the shocked and ecstatic travelling fans.
Such is his popularity to rival Maximus (some of us may have rewatched Gladiator this weekend), and despite not being given the chances he deserves so far, still delivering when he does get his moment. In a 38 minute appearance, he pulled the strings and helped orchestrate the comeback. Is it any wonder Leicester fans love him so much?
His substitution, and that of Harry Winks, both mainstays in last year's side, made a positive difference. It's not just the boost to the Leicester crowd, who get animated just as Fatawu runs on the pitch, his chant belted out. It's the promise, the tantalising thought of what he could do.
He only made the away end wait for 5 minutes after coming on.
Russell Martin and his Southampton side didn't appear to have learnt many lessons from facing, and suffering, at the hands of Fatawu in our last meeting. That day the Ghanaian ran riot, scoring a hat trick and causing all sorts of issues. His minutes were limited but his impact was just as great here.
We don't have an abundance of players who will just run at and take on the opposition. We saw some of it from Buonanotte, that persistence and determination. Fatawu is the embodiment of it. He forced his way through and caused enough chaos to allow Buonanotte to slot home. A goal from very little but a shred of hope.
Pushing a substitute who played a third of the game to get Man of the Match could be frowned at but Fatawu is worthy. His saved header was the reason Vardy was left with an empty net in front of him when Fraser decided to take one for the team, gifting us the penalty to draw even.
Fatawu’s efforts down that right wing also secured the corner from which we nicked the winner which Winks duly delivered into the box for Ayew to slam home.
If it's no Vardy, no party (see his excellent rustling of Saints fans at the third goal) then on reflection, this was no Fatawu, no points.
If this game doesn't convince Cooper that starting Fatawu is a necessity, nothing will and we'll have bigger issues in general. He's been maligned for not starting Fatawu and this game has to get him to reconsider. How to get him into the side may be the problem.
Replacing Victor Kristiansen when you're 2-0 down is a risk worth taking but can you start a game without a recognised full back against a bigger team? It's a problem Cooper needs to find a solution to because we've relied on individual moments of brilliance a lot so far, but Fatawu seems to gel more of the team together in attack.
Mads margins and right-back concerns
Mads Hermansen won’t get the headlines again because of the nature of the comeback but without him, there wouldn’t have been anything left to come back from. Like at Arsenal, he was the lifeline that kept us in with a chance and the score line down.
One of his best saves came from denying Wout Faes another ridiculous own goal. A speculative shot was heading into the penalty box and our Belgian decided to head it. Thankfully Mads was quick to cover it and tip it over. He stood up to the test again between the posts and it was brilliant to see him charge the length of the pitch to join in the celebrations. He earned that.
Then there’s the James Justin and Ricardo Pereira of it all. Quite what Ricardo has to do to get a chance is strange. He was so pivotal to everything that was good about Leicester last year and yes, it’s a new manager and a different system but his quality surely isn’t in doubt?
Justin continues to be the head scratcher. Without him at Arsenal, we probably wouldn’t have scored, but so many of the goals we’re conceding are coming from his flank and he’s being beaten by the likes of Kyle Walker-Peters who you’d expect him to have the measure of.
There’s a question of support, he isn’t getting a lot when Buonanotte is in that right winger position, see how both he and Ndidi tracked back after the quickly taken free kick for the first goal. But it’s hard to fully exonerate Justin from blame when it keeps happening.
It’s not a lack of effort, but he has struggled this season. In an excellent post-match thread on X, tactics man Dominic Wells considered this and also lays some consideration at Faes’ door alongside the ask of the players.
Seeing Ricardo celebrating the winner, with disbelief, on the touchline with Conor Coady does raise the question again of his inclusion. If we need to shuffle the system to ensure Fatawu can start, perhaps it also paves a way for Ricardo. It’s about time we see him given a chance too.
A win to hide the cracks
Three points is the main takeaway. It puts us on nine points. A tally exceeding what many would have predicted for this stage, deduction or not. No promoted side reached ten points before December 22nd last season and we sit just one point off.
But the win does paper over some cracks still. They're not insurmountable ones, but this did have the feel of a smash and grab last twenty minutes. And the refereeing decisions, and VAR, definitely fell our way.
Footballers will typically proclaim that you make your own luck. Perhaps that explains why Ayew’s very obvious pull on a Southampton shirt in our box seemingly wasn't even checked by VAR but when Saints substitute Ryan Fraser mirrored the move on Vardy at the other end, it was a penalty and a red card. Though Fraser's defence is harder given had he not done that, Vardy should have hit home into an open net.
Martin and Saints fans will rue a strange refereeing performance, which is fair. But that overlooks the fact that they should have buried Leicester in the first half and didn't. A combination of quality and the ever reliable Mads Hermansen, adding more money to his transfer fee with every game and undoubtedly keeping the score line down again.
It's hard to ignore that first half performance though. Did we know the game kicked off at 3? Few looked engaged in the opening quarter. We weren't picking up second balls, we were sloppy in possession and we got punished persistently down our right flank.
A better team would have put the game out of our reach by the break. Still, credit to the team to come out and turn it around. Fight is what we wanted and we got it in the end. By the end we’d out-possessed the possession king and our XG was better too.
It was still a tough second half for some players. While the substitutes made an impact, all three brought energy, creativity and that dogged persistence, those who had struggled in the first half, continued as such. At some stage we need to start stringing together cohesive performances for the full ninety minutes.
This was a game to forget for Stephy Mavididi. His first half was an exhibition of why some fans have been frustrated with him previously, he gave the ball away a lot and generally struggled to impose himself. If Cooper does only believe in playing him or Fatawu, his spot is under threat.
The manner in which we won the game will do so much to this side, the feeling of back to back wins breeding that confidence and togetherness.
Cooper talked about some players being in transition in adjusting to the Premier League, in truth we still look like a side doing that, but to take home the three points when all looked lost has to count for something.
Next up is midland rivals Nottingham Forest at the King Power. It’s one we all want to win and Cooper’s first meeting against his old side. Another tough test but one for which the crowd should be very animated and if we could make a positive start to keep that energy going, perhaps we can be targeting another point or more to add to the tally.
