The third-most expensive footballer can be an incongruous presence in a mid-table meeting but he illuminated this one. If the £142m fee Barcelona paid Liverpool for Philippe Coutinho suggested his talents belonged on grander stages, he graced this, gliding and ghosting around, confounding and eluding Southampton.
They had held both Manchester clubs on an unbeaten run that spanned seven games but was ended emphatically by Coutinho. Danny Ings’s first reunion with his former club proved his most productive afternoon for his new employers, yielding two assists and a goal, but the architect of Steven Gerrard’s biggest victory as Aston Villa manager was his flagship signing.
Coutinho played a part in the first two goals, scored the third and departed to a standing ovation. Before then, he could have registered one of the quickest hat‑tricks in Premier League history, courtesy of an extraordinary four‑minute period where he had three golden chances, two supplied by Ollie Watkins and one saved by Fraser Forster, and still found time to set up Douglas Luiz’s goal.
“I was not so happy with our tactical performance,” said the Southampton manager, Ralph Hasenhüttl. “We had big problems with the [No] 10.”
It was no wonder Oriol Romeu, Southampton’s defensive midfielder and the man whose duties included shackling Coutinho, walked off at half-time shaking his head. Coutinho’s capacity to make excellence look effortless must have been depressing.
“For me, he was the man of the match,” said Gerrard, whose own track record of virtuoso displays equips him to judge another. “He showed a level that was above the game at times and showed his form of old. It was a pleasure to be in the stadium.”
Irrepressible as Coutinho was, it was not quite a one-man demolition job. Watkins was outstanding as well, scoring for a second successive Saturday and combining beautifully with Coutinho. His double act with Ings has rarely felt as natural or as fluent, with the question of what to do with the two strikers seeming a conundrum for both Villa managers this season.
If Gerrard reaped a rich dividend for last week’s decision to pair them, putting Coutinho at the tip of a midfield diamond and benching Emi Buendía, the Brazilian showed he could compensate by providing the creativity of two men. Seven months after Ings signed from Southampton, Villa had a first: neither he nor Watkins had laid a goal on for the other. That unwanted statistic was remedied in an improved display.
“Ollie and Danny were unplayable,” said Gerrard. “That relationship is building nicely.”
It was apparent when Villa’s front three teamed up, Coutinho feeding Ings, who provided a deft, incisive pass for Watkins, who turned away from Jack Stephens and shot, beating Forster. Ings had met with a few jeers from the visiting contingent at the start, which felt a case of ingratitude towards a member of a select band in Southampton history. Only Matt Le Tissier, James Beattie and Ings have scored 20 goals in a Premier League season for them and if he has never been as prolific since his £25m move to Villa, he swept in his fifth from Matty Cash’s low cross.
Sandwiched by Coutinho’s misses, as Southampton lost track of him and Watkins felt increasingly rampant, Douglas Luiz scored the second. The former Saint Calum Chambers seemed to borrow a pass from Coutinho’s handbook, with a deft chip over their defence, to find him and he teed up his fellow Brazilian for a simple finish. “He could have gone for goal himself,” said Gerrard, applauding Coutinho’s unselfishness.
Hasenhüttl changed shape at half-time, introducing Yan Valery as a third centre-back and seeking to subdue Coutinho, but Southampton promptly conceded twice in nine minutes. Found by Ings, Coutinho turned away from James Ward-Prowse in a crowded penalty area before drilling in a shot. Then the striker scored himself. “We conceded easy goals,” said Hasenhüttl.
There might have been more. “It could have been five, six or seven,” Gerrard said. Forster had made a terrific save from Watkins, when Coutinho found him, and denied Ings. At the other end, Stuart Armstrong, Che Adams and Romain Perraud threatened first-half equalisers but Hasenhüttl was not consoled. “It was simply not good enough,” he said. “They wanted it more than we did.”
