Virgil van Dijk strikes first as Southampton cruise to win over Swansea

James Beattie scored 68 goals during six and a half years at Southampton but his task since last summer, when he was appointed as Swansea’s first-team coach, is to sharpen the strike force of Garry Monk’s side. The former England forward has had his work cut out for him in recent weeks, as Swansea arrived at St Mary’s on the back of three games without a goal. Gylfi Sigurdsson did finally find the net for them here, but only from the penalty spot after the match was all but lost . 

A team that is blunt up front better be robust at the back but in the 11th minute here, Swansea were infiltrated in the most basic fashion. After another returning ex-Saint, Jack Cork, failed to keep track of Virgil van Dijk from a corner, the Dutch centre-back headed James Ward-Prowse’s delivery into the net at the near post.

The goal was fair reward for a bright start from the home side, although the clearest chance before then had fallen to the visitors after Maarten Stekelenburg parried a long-range shot by Jonjo Shelvey into the path of Ki Sung-yueng. The Korean sent his subsequent shot way over the bar, in the process probably booking himself into extra finishing lessons with Beattie next week. Mind you, Ki did threaten to score in the 23rd minute when a better long-range effort almost squirmed under Stekelenburg.

Southampton’s finishing could also do with some polishing. Graziano Pellè and Sadio Mané both miskicked when in promising positions early on. Last week Saints were eventually punished for missing chances to go two up after taking the lead against Manchester United and the agitation of Ronald Koeman on the sideline suggested the manager dreaded a repeat here. He need not have worried.

After a first half in which Southampton were well on top, thanks in particular to the midfield dominance of Victor Wanyama, Monk made two substitutions seemingly intended to give his team more width and punch. But it did not work. Éder, introduced at centre-forward instead of the ineffective Bafétimbi Gomis, gave an early indication that his sights might not be finely aligned by whacking a 25-yard shot over by about the same distance.