Soccer
Coach Ralph Hasenhüttl suffered a painful defeat with Southampton in the English Premier League on Saturday. The “Saints” had no chance at home against Champions League winners Chelsea 6-0. While Chelsea consolidated third place ahead of Tuesday’s quarter-final second leg at Real Madrid (first leg 1-3), Arsenal and Manchester United suffered surprising defeats in the battle for Champions League spots.
In the past two seasons, Southampton had suffered 9-0 debacles under Hasenhüttl, the highest in Premier League history – in October 2019 against Leicester City and most recently last year against ManUnited. It wasn’t that bad this time, but after less than an hour it was 6-0 for Chelsea.
The goals were scored by Marcos Alonso (8th), Mason Mount (16th, 54th), Timo Werner (21st, 49th) and Kai Havertz (31st). Southampton slipped to 13th place with their fifth defeat in the last six competitive games.
Again setbacks for Arsenal and ManUnited
Arsenal lost 2-1 to Brighton and Hove Albion. The outstanding man was ex-Salzburger Enock Mwepu with one goal and one assist. Martin Ödegaard’s goal came too late for the Londoners (89th), they are fifth. Three points are missing in a less played game against fourth-placed arch-rivals Tottenham. Spurs beat Aston Villa 4-0, Son Heung Min scored three goals. ManUnited follow in seventh place. The star ensemble lost 1-0 to Everton, who were in the relegation zone.
United have only won one of their last seven competitive games, losing out to Atletico Madrid in the round of 16 in the Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. also had nothing to gain in Liverpool. Anthony Gordon scored Everton’s gold goal with a shot deflected off the back of United captain Harry Maguire (27′).
Leeds continue uptrend
Leeds United continued their upward trend under new coach Jesse Marsch with a 3-0 win at Watford. In five league games under the American, who, like in Salzburg, is assisted by ex-ÖFB team player Franz Schiemer, there have been three wins and a draw after an opening defeat. Leeds have a good chance of staying up.
For Watford, the club of ÖFB goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann, who was recently on the bench, it is becoming increasingly bleak. Everton, the top team in a non-relegation zone, are six points shy of the penultimate team with seven games to go. Everton have also played one game less. In between there is still Burnley with another game in hand.
