An early Saido Berahino goal has given West Bromwich Albion a 1-0 half-time lead against Southampton in this afternoon's Premier League clash at The Hawthorns.
© Getty Images
The hosts opened the scoring within the first 70 seconds as Chris Brunt's free kick was only half-cleared by Maya Yoshida, and Berahino was in the right place to rifle the rebound into the top corner from close range.
West Brom continued to press and, just a few minutes later, Berahino charged towards Southampton's goal before playing in Brown Ideye, but the subsequent shot was blocked by the Saints backline.
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman reshuffled his formation early on in the face of the Baggies' dominance, bringing on winger Eljero Elia for centre-back Florin Gardos and changing to 4-4-2.
On the half-hour mark, a defence-splitting pass from Morgan Schneiderlin fell to Sadio Mane inside the penalty area but, with teammates in good positions around him, he went for glory and fired over.
The Saints were much improved after changing from 3-5-2, but were unable to get themselves level come the break.
Giuseppe Labellarte
