Southampton picked up their first win in four Premier League games as they beat West Brom 1-0 at St Mary’s.
Southampton fans finally had a win to smile about on Saturday as a Sofiane Boufal dream goal inspired the Saints to their first three points since beating Crystal Palace back in September – but while Boufal may have stolen the headlines, one of his teammates received a huge number of plaudits from the fans on Twitter.
Mauricio Pellegrino’s men would have been buoyed by their previous result going into the clash with the Baggies – they came from behind twice to draw 2-2 with Newcastle – but they were left relying on a moment of incredible quality from Boufal five minutes from time to break the deadlock.
Mario Lemina
The goal will undoubtedly be remembered for a while, but the game itself is not one that will go down in Premier League history as a classic by any means. Nevertheless, there was one player who appeared to receive unanimous praise from the fans on social media after the game.
Mario Lemina has looked to be an inspired signing since moving to the south coast – arriving for £18.1 million from Juventus (via BBC Sport) – and he was truly excellent against the Baggies once again.
Southampton have shown that they have an incredible knack for finding unproven gems in recent years, and Lemina’s start to life in the Premier League hints that he may go on and become the biggest gem of the lot, having been a contender for man of the match in virtually every game he has played.
To take some of the attention from Boufal’s goal in a game of little quality is surely quite something, but based on the Saints fans’ reaction to Lemina’s display, his performance may have been as critical to the win as his teammate’s sensational late run was.
Here is the best of the reaction…
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