MATCH REPORT: Unimpressive Saints Beat Villa

At Villa Park, Dusan Tadic scored twice, Shane Long once, and Sadio Mane capped off the win with a stoppage-time goal to see Aston Villa off by a score of 4-2.

It started early when Shane Long missed a chance in the 2nd minute, but was able to come back and find the net to open scoring in the 15th minute to make it 1-0. Dusan Tadic scored a goal in the 39th minute which should've put Villa away, but they kept fighting.

Villa would find themselves only a goal down at half because of a quality shot from Ashley Westwood, who was one of the bright spots for Aston Villa today. The first half was very nonchalant from Saints, who seemed to be playing down to their competition.

Jordy Clasie came on for Victor Wanyama at half. Wanyama was the lesser of the two defensive midfielders today as Oriol Romeu put in a great performance.

To the second half, Saints let Villa hang around until the 71st minute where Dusan Tadic scored his second (!!!) goal of the game. Villa would pull another back to make it 3-2 through Ashley Westwood's second goal in the 85th minute, where he was completely unmarked at the top of the box.

The worry was unwarranted however, as Sadio Mane would finish the game off in stoppage time with a header that found the bottom corner to make it a 4-2 final.

Saints were rather slow and unimpressive today against bottom-dwellers Aston Villa, despite the four goals. They made mistakes in defense and throughout the field where their next two opponents, Manchester City and Tottenham, will punish them for it.