Southampton v Aston Villa: Premier League – live!

85 mins: Save! Goalline clearance! Another goalline clearance! From the corner, Bednarek’s header is saved, Adams’ shot is blocked, and Stephens’ shot is also blocked! What a game this has been in the four minutes since I announced it was a bad one!

84 mins: Chance! Ing’s pass is cut out by Mings but rolls to Redmond, whose shot deflects just over the bar!

83 mins: Grealish though is a one-man fun machine, and he drops a shoulder one way before going the other and leaving Romeu trailing, humiliated in his wake and pulling back for Traore, whose shot is saved. Almost worth the price of admission on its own, that.

81 mins: A game between a team that doesn’t want or need to score and another that has forgotten how to is not a very good one. “He’s probably not going to come on, but I can’t be arsed waiting till he does,” writes Ben Bennett. “I wonder whether Southampton will deliberate if they go zonal or man-to-man when it comes to who Marx Engels.” Very good indeed. Too good to waste waiting for it to be relevant.

78 mins: Martinez is a bit slow to come out and reach a back-pass, and Ings is that close to taking it off his toe!

77 mins: Another shot on target, but Ings’ 25-yarder, after he again drops deep to collect the ball, curls into Martinez’s arms.

73 mins: Villa try to break, and a handy bounce leaves Djenepo, last man back and not even on the halfway line, battling McGinn. Djenepo gets his head to the ball, but it hits McGinn’s upper arm and bounces handily for either McGinn or Barkley to run clear, but the referee spots the handball and blows his whistle!

70 mins: Save! Ings turns provider this time, playing Adams through, but his vicious but too central shot is saved by Martinez!

68 mins: A bit of chaos in the Villa penalty area ends when Armstrong nudges Douglas Luiz into Cash and the referee gives the away side a free kick.

66 mins: Good work from Grealish to tease Bednarek with his right foot before shifting the ball onto his left and crossing, but Romeu clears. Two injuries and an against-the-run-of-play goal in, Southampton may be starting to feel that this is not destined to be their night.

63 mins: Now Walcott pulls up, feeling his left hamstring, which presumably means his night is also over.

61 mins: Villa win a free kick, deep on the right. Barkley sends it in and four forwards are clean through, but at least three of them are offside and Watkins sends his header wide anyway. “On the subject of similar names, it has occurred to me that Saints could feasibly field a defensive line consisting of YAN Valery, JAN-nik Vestergaard, JAN Bednarek and R-YAN Bertrand. All of whose first names are pronounced in a similar way,” notes Matt Howell. “Evidence, if any was needed, that I need to get out more.” Don’t we all, Matt.

59 mins: Diallo is leaving the field with some kind of physical discomfort, and Djenepo is going to replace him.

56 mins: The ball has barely left Villa’s half since the break, but Villa are defending well, and still leaving numbers up for potential breaks.

53 mins: … but it’s a poor effort, which hits the ball at chest height.

52 mins: Now Southampton win a free kick, on the edge of the D, a great shooting chance. James Ward-Prowse places the ball.

51 mins: Redmond runs onto a pull-back from the left, but his first-time shot hits Mings.

48 mins: The home side push from the kick-back-off. Ings is found on the edge of the box, but his first touch is uncharacteristically poor, and they don’t muster a shot.

Hmmmm, perhaps. Personally I’m not sure it’s the best footballer duet involving Chris Waddle.

“Struck by rhyming striker v centre half,” writes Andrew Murray of Ings and Mings. “Cannot immediately think of other examples. But surely names like Kane, Wright, Cole would work?”

Of course football’s greatest rhyming pair (possibly) were Hoddle and Waddle. Clearly Ings and Mings should follow them into a sideline in music, and release an album called Ings & Mings Sing Things. If that sells well they could do an album of Bing Crosby covers, Ings & Mings Sing Bing’s Things.

45+1 mins: Time for a breather. Southampton have had a lot of ball, but haven’t created much more than a penalty shout and need to up their games. Villa have not played fluidly, but one good cross and one good and crucially untracked run from midfield was all they needed.

44 mins: Southampton are yet to have a shot on target. Villa haven’t looked consistently dangerous, but I suppose you only have to look dangerous once.

42 mins: Now Barkley finds Watkins, whose first attempt hits Bednarek and rebounds back to him for another try, which is saved.

The breakthrough! The ball is lifted over the defence to Grealish on the left, whose half-volleyed cross finds Barkley suspiciously unmarked on the penalty spot to head home!

38 mins: Save! Grealish finds space from a throw-in and passes infield to Watkins, whose first touch is excellent and opens up a shooting chance, and who then hits low across goal only for McCarthy to make a fine stop.

36 mins: Armstrong pulls back to Romeu, lurking on the edge of the area, but his first-time left-footer flies way, way high of goal.

35 mins: After a bright opening the game has grown up to become stodgy, chanceless and largely unlovable. Still time for it to change, of course.

32 mins: Southampton try to pass the ball out from the back, and with Villa pressing they get about 10 yards before Romeu is forced to hurry a pass and the away side have a throw-in.

31 mins: A lovely run through the middle by Romeu, but then instead of prodding forward to release Ings for what might have been a fabulous pass he chooses a more obvious pass to Armstrong on the left, and from his touch backwards Bertrand shoots wide of the near post from 20 yards.

27 mins: Villa are having a spell of possession, though it’ snot very good possession, amounting to a couple of long passes and some throw-ins.

23 mins: A long ball down the left finds Traore bursting through, but he’s just offside. Villa are going long too often, I fear, bypassing midfield when it is their strongest area.

20 mins: It does look like the ball flicked off Cash’s thigh on the way to his hand, which is why the defender was given the benefit of the doubt. “That wasn’t just a handball, Cash moved his arm so obviously that I’m genuinely impressed with the save,” rages Brad McMillan. “I can understand the ref not giving it in real time but, point blank range or otherwise, the defender’s hand was out and moved towards the ball … I’m absolutely stunned.”

16 mins: It’s been an excellent start to the game, nothing cagey about it. Southampton have put together the most impressive moves, but Villa have threatened on the break. “VAR decisions are so unpredictable,” writes Niall Mullen of that handball call. “Even in old money that was a pen.”

14 mins: The clearance goes to Romeu, and what follows is 30 seconds of anything-could-happen madness, the ball zipping across the area, then pinging around the area, before finally it returns to Romeu and he shoots wide.

13 mins: Walcott plays a nice one-two with Romeu and gets down the right, but his cross deflects behind off a defender, and Mings heads the corner clear.

10 mins: It was, according to the VAR. A slightly charitable reading there. Ings’ skill in creating the chance, though, was delicious.

10 mins: The ball hit Cash’s left arm. It was blasted at him, but was his arm in a natural position?

8 mins: Ooof! Ward-Prowse passes infield to Ings, who lifts it over his head and over his marker before pulling back to Armstrong, whose shot is blocked by a defender … but what bit of a defender? VAR, over to you!

6 mins: Turns out Emi Martinez is also in short sleeves. Anyway, we’ve now had a shot, Watkins taking the ball from Barkley, shifting it onto his left foot and dragging an effort wide of goal.

4 mins: There can’t have been many goalkeepers in short sleeves this weekend, but Alex McCarthy is so clad. Presumably he is expecting Villa to keep him warm.

2 mins: It appears Ward-Prowse is playing at right-back for the home side, rather than Diallo.

The players are gathering in the tunnel. It’s four minutes to football o’clock.

That’s an extraordinary hat/snood combination there, is it not?

Southampton make three changes, with Bertrand back from suspension and slotting in at left-back instead of Vokins, Romeu returning for Valery, who played at right-back last week – it looks like Ibrahima Diallo will be there tonight – and Redmond replacing Che Adams. Villa are unchanged, with their new signing, Morgan Sanson, on the bench.

The team sheets have been handed in, and the names upon them were these:

Southampton: McCarthy, Diallo, Bednarek, Stephens, Bertrand, Redmond, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Armstrong, Walcott, Ings. Subs: Watts, Long, Adams, Djenepo, Valery, Ramsay, N’Lundulu, Forster, Jankewitz.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett, Douglas Luiz, McGinn, Traore, Barkley, Grealish, Watkins. Subs: Heaton, Taylor, Trezeguet, Nakamba, El Ghazi, Engels, Sanson, Elmohamady, Davis.
Referee: Lee Mason.

Aston Villa have lost four of their five games in 2021, only beating Newcastle which doesn’t really count, and suddenly their excellent season is in danger of turning average. “We’re comfortable with how we’re playing and how we’ve attacked a lot of the games,” says Dean Smith. “It’s been rare that I’ve walked away from a game and thought ‘we haven’t competed today’.”

Meanwhile this is Southampton’s sixth game of January 2021 and five of them will have been played at home, a statistically unlikely run – which has required a couple of home draws in the Cup – that will be followed by five away games in seven (though that could change if they win at Wolves in round five of the FA Cup). The Saints come up against the league’s second-best defence – only Manchester City have kept more clean sheets than Villa – having scored only two goals in their last six league matches, a pretty rubbish run that Ralph Hasenhuttl insists isn’t bothering him. “I’m never scared,” he said. “As long as we have chances to score, everything is okay for me. Sometimes you score more, sometimes not. If we wouldn’t have any chances then I would be worried.”

It’s an intriguing match this one, between two teams that have tended to entertain me when I’ve seen them this season. Welcome!