Watford see off Saints, soar to 4th

Southampton’s defence troubled by long throw-in

SOUTHAMPTON, UK, Sept 9, (AFP): Marco Silva’s Watford climbed to fourth in the Premier League on Saturday after a 2-0 win at Southampton to remain unbeaten in their opening four games for the first time.

Goals in either half from Abdoulaye Doucoure and substitute Daryl Janmaat maintained Watford’s jaunty start to the campaign which began with their fighting 3-3 draw with Liverpool.

Southampton offered little resistance under new coach Mauricio Pellegrino with their only shot on goal coming in injury time as the Argentinian suffered his first league defeat since taking over at St Mary’s.

Watford went close to grabbing the opener with the game 22 minutes old when Jose Holebas curled a 25 yard free-kick over the Saints’ wall, the ball narrowly edging the wrong side of the post.

As the interval approached Southampton’s defence was troubled by a long throw-in from the left from Holebas, the Greek international marking his 50th appearance for Watford. Jack Stephen’s attempt to clear resulted in Doucoure foiling keeper Fraser Forster with a superb 25-yard volley.

On the stroke of half-time, Doucoure — among the scorers for Watford against Liverpool — was not a million miles away from getting a double only for the Mali-born French midfielder’s long-range attempt to fly over the bar.

Southampton left the pitch accompanied by boos from some of their fans who were given further cause to feel disgruntled when Watford doubled their lead after the hour.

Tom Cleverley headed a partial clearance to Janmaat and minutes after coming on the Dutch defender sealed the win, firing a 30-yard shot past Forster and into the bottom corner.

Pellegrino took immediate action to try to shift the balance of power, the Argentinian replacing Manolo Gabbiadini with Shane Long, and Sofiane Boufal with Charlie Austin.

However, he just missed out on climbing onto the podium as he moved up to fourth overall.

Russia’s Ilnur Zakarin leapfrogged Dutch rider Wilco Kelderman into third.

Froome was again well protected by his Sky team in the chasing group behind, before attacking himself two kilometres from the finish line to take third on the stage behind teammate Wout Poels.

“That was such a tough climb,” added Froome, who also shed a tear as he was embraced by his team at the finish line.

“We did everything to try and catch Alberto, but he was too strong today.

“Congratulations to him because to finish his career like this is beautiful.”

With his fifth Grand Tour win of his career, Froome will join Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil (1963) and Bernard Hinault (1978) as the only riders to win the Tour and Vuelta in the same year.

But the Briton is the first man to win both races since the Vuelta was moved to after the Tour in the racing calendar in 1995.

Nibali’s hopes of launching a challenge for the leader’s red jersey were undermined by a minor crash on a sharp descent before the climb to Angliru began as the Italian finished 34 seconds behind Froome in sixth.

Meanwhile, world champion Peter Sagan won a bunch sprint to claim the Grand Prix de Quebec on Friday for an impressive 100th win of his career.

After five hours of racing, the Slovak burst clear over the final 50 metres to edge out Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet of Belgium and Australian sprinter Michael Matthews.

“It was my 100th win, that’s a special number. But it’s just cycling, better to live to 100 than have 100 wins,” said the charismatic Sagan, who will target a third straight world championship title in

Sagan

Bergen on September 24.

Van Avermaet can measure up against the 27-year-old Sagan again on Sunday at the Montreal Grand Prix, also a World Tour event.