Soccer Football - Premier League - Southampton v Everton - St Mary's Stadium, Southampton, Britain - November 2, 2024 Southampton's Cameron Archer celebrates after Adam Armstrong scores their first goal REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska
SOUTHAMPTON, England (Reuters) -Promoted Southampton finally got to celebrate a first Premier League win of the season with a 1-0 victory over Everton thanks to a late Adam Armstrong goal at St Mary's on Saturday.
Southampton sit second-bottom with four points from 10 matches, while Everton are 16th on nine points.
The visitors caused some problems in the opening minutes when they piled forward, but Southampton grew into the contest and had the lion's share of possession.
The best chance of the first half came when Cameron Archer raced past the Everton defence, but his shot flew just wide.
Moments after the interval, Saints goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale made some fine saves to keep out shots from Orel Mangala and Michael Keane before Armstrong struck in the 85th minute.
The striker timed his run to perfection to slot home inside the box and fire past goalkeeper Jordan Pickford after a counter-attack. That winner came just after Everton's Beto headed against the crossbar at the other end.
Everton thought they had equalised when Beto controlled a long ball and slotted it past Ramsdale but his effort was ruled out for offside as Southampton withstood some late pressure to seal their first win of the league season.
The result ended Everton's five-match unbeaten run but will ease some of the pressure on Saints boss Russell Martin, who guided the south-coast side to promotion last season.
"It's huge for us as a team, as a group, as a club, and the clean sheet as well. We played some beautiful football, some brilliant football and had to dig in at times. Rambo (Ramsdale) made a couple of brilliant saves," Martin said.
"We scored a goal, which comes from their attacking set play and amazing composure in our box. It starts there with the guys not just clearing the ball and staying so brave. I'm really proud of them for that. It's a really good goal.
"I'm really grateful to the boys for sticking through some tough moments today as well as sticking with what we want to be and who we want to be."
Everton manager Sean Dyche said Southampton centre back Jan Bednarek should have been sent off for bringing down Beto, who was tearing down on goal. Bednarek was given a yellow card and survived a VAR check.
"The big calls didn't go for us either, particularly the one where Beto goes straight through. How that's not a sending-off, I don't know. He's inside the V as the referees work on," Dyche said.
"I know their defender, I don't think he's that quick to get around him from there but we don't get those big decisions often...
"We had plenty of desire to get back and they got that out of nothing at that stage of the game."
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris and Pritha Sarkar)
