Southampton 0 - Tottenham 2: England stars Kane and Alli sink Saints

Dele Ali scoring Tottenham's second goal at St Mary's in the first half

 

MAURICIO POCHETTINO returned to his old stamping ground to send Southampton tumbling to their worst run of results since he left the club 18 months ago.

 

Harry Kane and Dele Alli put Tottenham back on track with a goal apiece in the space of three minutes to shake off the disappointment of their setback against Newcastle. Spurs boss They turned on a clinical display to take full advantage of Saints' defensive shortcomings.

These are troubled times for Ronald Koeman, Pochettino's successor at St Mary's, who has now seen his team lose five and draw one of their last six matches. He has already warned that Saints could be sucked into a relegation battle, and on this showing he could be right, especially with Arsenal their Boxing Day visitors.

Saints twice went close in the first seven minutes. It took a fine block from former Saints defender Toby Alderweireld to deflect Sadio Mane's angled shot wide, before Mane latched onto a cross from Dusan Tadic to fire in a drive that Hugo Lloris saved superbly.

 

And those misses proved costly when Harry Kane showed his England class to put Spurs in front with a fine individual goal.

He picked up the ball just inside his own half then easily evaded the challenge of Cedric and then Van Dijk before racing clear to steer home a low shot.

Three minutes later it was two. Kyle Walker ran unchallenged down the right before delivering a cross that eluded four Saints men and picked out Dele Alli at the far post for a simple tap-in.

 

Koeman said: "We made some unbelievable mistakes. When you see the first goal we looked like amateurs. In three minutes the game was over.

"We were so naive in defending, and if we don't change that mentality we will continue to struggle. I am angry at the way we conceded the first goal because I cannot accept it.

"We lost the battle, but we are losing too many battles. We need to change our mentality. We are too nice on the pitch. But it's not too late, we have time to react to what we need."

Pochettino said: "We fully deserved the win. It was fantastic for us. I feel very pleased with the team. We were not at the level we wanted to play early on, but later our quality was enough to win the game."