With my new job as an Opta Analyst, I will spend every other Saturday morning and Monday evening watching the Southampton u18s and u23s. However one of the perks of the job is that I am first reserve for the first team matches. The first home match of the Saints’ Premier League campaign was against Liverpool and when I got the email saying I will be covering it, I was over the moon.

It would be just my second match working for Opta, but I had already made it to the Premier League and I could not wait. I have been to St Mary’s previously with my team Yeovil, but that experience is best left in the past. I genuinely can’t remember whether I have been there once or twice before but I do know we would have lost 100% of the games.

The game didn’t go as I thought but still entertained me none the less. Sadio Mane scored in second half stoppage time to give Jurgen Klopp’s side the lead before Roberto Firmino doubled it with 20 minutes to go. Danny Ings pulled one back after an Adrian howler and should have doubled his tally late on but missed a glaring opportunity to equalise.

Atmosphere:

I will mention this a lot during the season with my Opta games, but I wear noise cancelling headphones during the match so the crowd and other surrounding noises should be cut out. This wasn’t the case for the second match in a row as both Southampton and Liverpool were making noise throughout, especially the latter.

Liverpool fans are renowned for their atmosphere at Anfield, belting out You’ll Never Walk Alone before the match and they were on form on the South Coast as well. They kindly reminded everybody in the stadium that they are Champions of Europe on several occasions, but if you could, you would as well.

I am going to rate the atmosphere 4.5/5

Cost:

Once again, I din’t have to pay for this Premier League clash but if I wanted to go next time it would put me back £40. With the additional £15 train journey it equates to around £55, which sounds a lot, but for a day out watching Premier League football, that isn’t too bad.

There will be cheaper Premier League grounds to go to for sure and just a league below I have been to Bristol City that only cost £20 to get in, so value for money isn’t the greatest at St. Mary’s.

So for cost, I am going to rate it 3/5

Entertainment:

With the Saints coming up against the European Champions, I was expecting a one sided match which would see Liverpool come out comfortable winners, especially given the fact that Southampton shipped three against Burnley a week beforehand.

Well the first half was quite the opposite with Southampton having the better of the play and they could and probably should’ve gone ahead after a Maya Yoshida header from a corner was well saved by Adrian. He almost undid that good work almost immediately, playing the ball against James Ward-Prowse in his own box, only to see it squirt wide.

Ex- Southampton man, Sadio Mane scored in first half stoppage time against the run of play but I don’t think he or any of the Liverpool fans cared one bit. They doubled their lead after 70 minutes after a cool Roberto Firmino finish seemingly put the game away for Liverpool.

However Adrian tried one trick too many and rebounded the ball of former Liverpool striker Danny Ings who halved the deficit. He should have grabbed a point for Ralph Hassenhuttl’s side late on, but he couldn’t convert Yan Valery’s cross from only a few yards out.

For entertainment I wil rate it a 3.5/5

Facilities:

The stadium itself is your typical Premier League ground. It’s capacity of around 32,000 make for a great atmosphere throughout the match. What also helps the atmosphere and is a reason I especially like the ground is the fact that it is a bowl. There aren’t too many that come to mind that aren’t one of the top six sides, but I’m sure once Luke reads this he will come up with a list of 20 in a matter of minutes.

The facilities are also very nice. The ground on the inside and out is just stunning and I will definitely look forward to attending more games there as soon as I can.

For facilities I am going to rate St Mary’s 4/5

Food:

Immediately after I left the stadium I knew exactly what I was going to rate the food. In the press lounge there was a menu on offer but as I hadn’t heard of half the stuff on it I opted for a couple of slices of Naan bread pre-match. It was very nice but nothing spectacular so at that point I was expecting a 3/4 star rating.

However. Once the half time whistle went, the media flocked back into he lounge where we were greeted with a pile of sausage rolls accompanied with a pile of chocolate shortbreads. I was in heaven, and before I could check the half time scores, there were two of each on my plate. I demolished them in no time at all and they were the best sausage rolls and chocolate shortbreads I have ever had.

So I thought it would be rude not to grab a couple more during the break as there were still plenty on offer. I thought that would be the end of my devouring banquet but after the match I went back in to check the scores and there they still were. Another two more consumed before you could say “slow down fatty” and off I went to the train station.

For food I have to rate Southampton, 5/5.

Man of the Match:

Man of the match was a tough one for me as Liverpool weren’t exactly on their top form. Virgil Van Dijk for one wasn’t at his high standard and neither were the two full backs. I am going to give my man of the match to the final player in the back four, Joel Matip.

I think the Cameroonian centre back goes under the radar with all the other stars around him, but he just gets on and does his job well. He arguably played better than his partner Van Dijk which is a massive compliment considering the year the Dutchman has had.

Matip was a rock at the back all game and would’ve earned his clean sheet if it wasn’t for Adrian’s silly mistake.

So what does this mean?

This means Southampton fly to the top of the leaderboard with an overall score of 20, surpassing Spurs for top spot. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Southampton and I literally can’t wait until I am back there again. Also I met Tony Pulis after the match, no relevance here whatsoever but thought I’d share it anyway.