Southampton 0 Tottenham 5: Saints fans leave after 26 mins as Spurs’ five-star display leaves Russell Martin on brink
EVEN Russell Martin turned his back on his sorry Southampton team as the goals rained down on them.
The under-fire Saints gaffer had already headed down the tunnel to prepare his half-time team-talk before James Maddison struck an ingenious fifth.
Martin’s gaffe compounded a nightmare first half which saw Maddison net before and after strikes from Son Heung-min, Dejan Kulusevski and Pape Matar Sarr.
The goal blitz from the visitors provided Tottenham chief Ange Postecoglou some welcome respite and a first win in six.
But for Martin it was pure humiliation that, at the interval, looked in danger of matching the record-breaking 9-0 suffered by Ralph Hasenhuttl against Maddison’s Leicester in 2019.
It did not reach that scale of torment but it was still seriously painful for the 38-year-old.
He was subjected to taunts of “We want Martin out” and “Russell Martin, you’re football is s***” by the home fans – many of whom left early.
And with just five points from the first 16 games taken – a position from which no Premier League side has ever survived – it left Martin’s job prospects looking bleak.
Fans are frustrated by his pursuit of sexy football which seems ill-fitting with the quality of players at his disposal at this level.
There was plenty of anger vented in the away end too – despite the scoreline – in the direction of watching chairman Daniel Levy.
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Supporters see the 62-year-old as the primary reason for their lack of success during his 24-year reign, and sang anti-Levy songs throughout.
St Mary’s was the scene of Antonio Conte’s epic meltdown in March last year which saw the Italian verbally torch the club and the players for being second-rate.
It came after his Spurs side had somehow gone from 3-1 up with ten minutes to go to drawing 3-3 – and it proved to be the Italian firebrand’s last game in charge.
A blurring of the vision Conte and the club had for the future first appeared eight months earlier in pre-season and centered around Spence.
Unprompted, Conte brought up the subject of the £12.5million signing from Middlesbrough and branded him a “club signing”.
He never played him and, amazingly, Spence had to wait two and a half YEARS before making his first start for Tottenham last night.
Most would never have expected it to come after he had a season-long loan spell to Leeds cut short last term due to his poor attitude.
But the 24-year-old bucked up his ideas over the summer and was kept by Postecoglou, who finally gave him a chance from the off here with Pedro Porro tired and out of form.
It proved to be worth the eternal wait as Spence was excellent and beautifully crafted the 38-second opener, driving forward and threading the ball through for Maddison to stick between Alex McCarthy’s legs.
After a dismal run of one win in eight games, it was the perfect start for Postecoglou’s injury-hit side – but it was about to get so much better.
Still, the away fans ensured their point about Levy was not lost amid the celebrations and instantly after Maddison’s goal they were back to telling their chairman to go.
One became two on 12 minutes and then three two minutes after that.
First, a Maddison cross deflected off Jan Bednarek’s head and fell to the feet of Son, who gleefully fired home.
The South Korean then turned provider as he squared for Dominic Solanke, who Bednarek did just about enough to stop him from scoring but not from Kulusevski turning in the rebound.
Spurs’ support cheered that with a rendition of “I don’t care about Levy, he don’t care about me, all I care about is Kulusevski”.
But at that point it was the home fans’ response that took centre stage as they turned on Martin with raucous chants.
He opted to make a change with poor Kamaldeen Sulemana the fall guy for the flailing display and defender Nathan Wood sent on in his place.
It did little to stem the tide though and on 25 minutes, Son squared for Sarr who danced round Saints’ backline and stuck it past the helpless McCarthy.
Postecoglou had copped severe stick the last time he was on the South Coast with fans branding him “Poste-no-clue” after a limp 1-0 loss at Bournemouth ten days ago.
They were singing his name here though after Sarr’s strike, giving the Aussie some light relief during the most testing time of his tenure.
Some Saints’ supporters opted to leave at that point, no doubt fearing a Leicester-esque embarrassment.
Ex-Fox Maddison had an inspired second just before half-time here as he blasted from the acutest angle.
It called to mind Frank Lampard’s famous touchline strike against Barcelona for Chelsea all those years ago – but Martin was already down the tunnel as it rippled the net.
Saints were booed off and then booed on again – you don’t see that too often – before ironic oles for consecutive passes and self-deprecating songs of how they were “coming for you,” Portsmouth in the Championship.
Their side were actually better after the break but the devastating damage had already been done, pushing Martin’s post to breaking point.
Some of the Saints’ fans who opted to stay until the end taunted Martin with chants of ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’.
While a banner lifted by fans read: “R.M GET OUT OF OUR CLUB.”