GRAZIANO PELLE, the Italy global without a league goal since early November, struck twice in 20 first-half minutes to increase Southampton’s chances of winning a place in Europe.
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Pelle flicked in a Steven Davis corner with a neat header after 11 minutes before he benefited from fine approach work from Dusan Tadic in the 29th to make it 2-0 at the Britannia Stadium.
Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has acknowledged that his side were made to pay for their mistakes in the 2-1 defeat to Southampton.
Hughes was happier with his team’s reaction after half-time but Stoke’s defeat means they slip to ninth in the Premier League after their four-game unbeaten run came to an end.
At first, Pelle was denied by goalkeeper Jack Butland, who pulled off a decent save to prevent the forward’s header from creeping under the crossbar, but the resulting corner ended up differently. But the Serbian took far too long on the ball and Stoke cleared the danger through Geoff Cameron.
Stoke were much improved after the interval and got back in the game after 51 minutes.
Fraser Forster then saved a powerful Arnautovic shot as Stoke sought a quickfire equaliser, before Afellay bent a 30-yard effort off target.
Southampton could have had a penalty when Tadic went down over the onrushing Butland in the box, but referee Lee Mason felt it was not a foul.
Marko Arnautovic’s goal at the start of the second half made it interesting but despite substitute Sadio Mane getting sent off late on, the visitors held on for the win.
“It was two great strikes by Graziano”, Koeman said.
But that would be as close as the Potters would get to obtaining any points from the match, failing to score in the final 40 minutes plus added time and finishing the game with a loss.
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“I mentioned before that he was struggling a little bit in scoring goals”.
