Sports

Manchester United romp 9-0 over Southampton

Sports Desk, Feb 2 (efe-epa).- Manchester United embarrassed Southampton 9-0 on Tuesday to go level on points with Premier League leaders Manchester City.

United enjoyed their most lopsided league victory in 26 years, while for the Saints, the memory of the 0-9 thrashing they endured from Leicester City in October 2019 is still painfully fresh.

Injuries forced Southampton coach Ralph Hasenhüttl to cobble together a side that was short on experience, including midfielder Alexandre Jankewitz, making his first Premier League start.

But the Swiss teenager’s debut ended disastrously with his expulsion in the second minute for a studs-up tackle on United’s Scott McTominay.

Trying to contain United at Old Trafford with 10 men for 88 minutes plus stoppage time was certainly not what Southampton had in mind and the onslaught wasn’t long in coming.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka opened the scoring in the 18th minute and Marcus Rashford doubled the lead seven minutes later.

The Saints went behind 3-0 in the 34th minute, when defender Jan Bednarek sent the ball into his own net while trying to clear a cross into the box from Rashford.

Edison Cavani extended the lead for the hosts with a great header in the 39th minute.

Che Adams pulled one back for Southampton in the 55th minute, but the goal was disallowed for an offside, and Anthony Martial made it 5-0 with a little more than 20 minutes left in regulation.

The sixth goal came just two minutes later courtesy of McTominay.

Southampton went down to nine men in the 87th minute, when Bednarek received a straight red card for bringing down Martial. Bruno Fernandes converted the penalty for the 7-0.

Martial got his second of the night in the 90th minute and Dan James added the ninth goal in stoppage time.

United improve to 44 points, the same as City, but the club from blue Manchester have two games in hand and a better goal difference.

Southampton slipped to 12th place on 29 points.

Hours earlier in Wolverhampton, Arsenal saw their unbeaten run halted at seven by a Wolves squad who last won in the Premier League on Dec. 15.

The Gunners were ahead 0-1 in first-half stoppage time on a great goal by Nicolas Pepe when David Luiz dropped Wolves attacker Willian Jose in the area and the referee pulled out a red card.

Ruben Neves scored from the spot and the teams went to the dressing rooms knotted 1-1.

Joao Moutinho put Wolves up 2-1 four minutes into the second half, beating Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno with a blast from 30 yards to post his first league goal since the fall of 2019.

The Gunners remained in the contest until Leno picked up a red card in the 72nd minute for handling the ball outside the area.

Wolves are 14th with 26 points, 5 fewer than 10th-place Arsenal.

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