Graziano Pelle scored twice in Southampton’s 4-0 win over Newcastle United on Saturday, and his other stats were pretty impressive, too.
Weren’t Southampton supposed to struggle this season after a summer of sales that some newspapers suggested was akin to a mass exodus?
Well, if their start to the new Premier League campaign is anything to go by, Saints fans can breathe easy, with their latest match exemplifying exactly why Ronald Koeman’s side will be fine. In fact keep this up and they will far better than just ‘fine’, with their recent additions bedding in impressively and one of them in particular proving there most certainly is life after Rickie Lambert et al.
Graziano Pelle continued where he left off for former club Feyenoord last season, netting twice from just three on-target scoring attempts. That saw him with an impressive conversion-rate of 66.67% in terms of goals-to-shots-on-target.
The £8million man also played one key pass to set up a goal-scoring chance for a teammate, while he had two off-target shots.
Not bad for a player who touched the ball just 38 times in 90 minutes of football.
| Goals | Total Scoring Attempt | On-target Scoring Attempt | Key Pass | Goals scored/On-target attempts | Touches | Mins | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graziano Pellè | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 66.67% | 38 | 90 |
The season is long and Koeman will know Southampton have a long way to go, but they showed against Newcastle that they have a starting XI to challenge the best of them. And if those players can remain fit and on form going forward, it may not be long before those men who left the club for pastures new are well and truly forgotten.
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