Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has admitted that the south coast side were “not good enough” against Aston Villa.
After Ollie Watkins gave Steven Gerrard’s side the lead inside just nine minutes, it was three further goals in the space of 10 minutes on either side of half-time that sealed Southampton’s fate at Villa Park.
Saints had been unbeaten since the middle of January, when they lost on their last visit to the West Midlands against Wolverhampton Wanderers and had most recently reached the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 3-1 win over West Ham United in midweek.
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Perhaps those exertions affected proceedings three days later, but Hasenhuttl was honest enough to concede that Villa “deserved the win”.
“It was overall not good enough what we showed against an aggressive side who wanted to turn things around at home, and they wanted it more than us,” Hasenhuttl said [via HampshireLive ].
“I wasn’t so happy with the tactical performance, we weren’t good enough in the duels, and that put us on the back foot.
“But credit to Aston Villa, they deserved the win.”
As well as growing lyrical about former teammate Philippe Coutinho, who “showed a level that was above the game at times,” Gerrard was adamant the win could have been by a wider margin.
“It could have been bigger,” Gerrard told the BBC Match of the Day, “without Fraser Forster, it could have been five or six.
“We deserved a clean sheet – we had a collective unity today; we worked hard and put our bodies on the lines.
“We scored four magnificent goals, and they were all different.
“What pleased me was the fact that we controlled the game; I don’t think anyone can take that away from us.”