Aaron Ramsdale suffered a nightmare debut for Southampton on Saturday afternoon, the Saints falling to a desperate 3-1 defeat by Brentford, though the England goalkeeper was hardly helped out by his defenders.
The brilliant Bryan Mbeumo struck twice either side of the break, both times punishing Southampton’s wayward passing out the back, before Yoane Wissa pounced on a Ramsdale mistake to make it 3-0 on 69 minutes.
Yukinari Sugawara’s consolation goal in added time was just reward for his fine work up and down the right flank, but the muted celebrations spoke volumes.
Again, Southampton dominated the ball, and again they came away with nothing to show for it other than another heavy-handed hint that they need to start learning from their mistakes.
It took just 90 seconds for Ramsdale to be called into action, throwing himself in front of a point-blank effort from Mikkel Damsgaard to prevent an early opener.
Brentford starred in the absence of Ivan Toney to secure their second league win of the season
It was a debut to forget for new Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale as he conceded three times
The visitors gave as good as they got in the early stages, though. Joe Aribo hit the crossbar with a flicked header from a corner, before Mark Flekken was called on to save a Ben Brereton Diaz header in the eighth minute.
Southampton possessed much more drive and cutting edge going forward than in recent weeks, but as the pulsating start to the game threatened to taper off midway through the first half, it was Brentford who were on top.
Saints defender Sugawara made a tremendous last-ditch block on Kevin Schade before Ramsdale again came to the rescue, this time laying the faintest of fingers on Yoane Wissa’s follow-up effort from six yards.
Wissa then fired a dazzling snapshot at the end of a wonderful piece of skill right out of Zinedine Zidane’s playbook, but it was straight at Ramsdale, whose first day at the office was getting busier by the minute.
The Saints failed to heed their warnings, though. Within 60 seconds both Jan Bednarek and Taylor Harwood-Bellis had their pockets picked, and they were duly punished.
Schade pinched it off the former Man City defender before his shot clattered into the post. With Ramsdale stranded, Bryan Mbeumo had the simple task of converting into a practically empty net from 12 yards – which he did with aplomb on 43 minutes.
It was so nearly the perfect response from Southampton, but Armstrong completely mis-timed his volley from six yards after a brilliant cross from Sugawara, and the Bees survived until the break.
Russell Martin made two changes at the break, and to his credit the Saints were better for it. Mateus Fernandes brought greater drive in midfield, but it was Brentford who had the first real chance of the half with Ramsdale keeping out a firm Schade header on 53 minutes.
Brentford star Yoane Wissa scored his side’s third goal with a scramble to the goal-line
The England goalkeeper then came out like a flash to deny Mbeumo a second three minutes later, and again stopped the Brentford star on 64 minutes after a booming Christian Norgaard effort was blocked inside the box.
But at the third time of asking Mbeumo finally got his second, and once again Southampton
were caught out, with Bednarek again the culprit. The Polish defender was dispossessed on the edge of the box by Wissa, who fed Jensen to put it on a plate for Mbeumo, who did the rest.
After copping a generous amount of flak from the increasingly joyous home fans, Ramsdale then handed them greater ammunition with a poor attempt to keep out Wissa’s third.
Saints winger Yukinari Sugawara tried to inspire hope of a late comeback but it was too late
Pressure continues to mount on Russell Martin with Southampton yet to win a game
Brentford have had a solid start to the season with two wins from their opening three games
The England goalkeeper was caught flat-footed after Jensen flicked on a corner from the front post, and could only flap a hand in vain at the ball before Wissa slammed it home.
The ruthless jeers continued for the remaining 20 minutes of the game, with a shell-shocked Southampton unable to get a grip on the game, which had already rapidly run away from them.
Where the Bees continued to press and press in both numbers and intensity, the Saints looked like they were set to limp towards the final whistle offering little in response, before Sugawara – who was their best player on the day – finally scored their first goal of the season.
The defender let rip a well-struck effort from inside the box that went in off the post to elicit an ironic round of ‘we scored a goal!’ from the visitors in the 94th minute.
