Time is running out for Southampton in their quest to survive in the Premier League this term, so a home game against Brentford was simply a must win for them.
They couldn’t have got off to a much worse start in that sense, as only six minutes were on the clock when Mikkel Damsgaard broke from midfield and freed Kevin Schade, who reached the ball first to poke beyond the on-rushing Aaron Ramsdale.
It was simply one-way traffic throughout the opening 45 minutes, and the Saints were lucky not to be two behind before they even mustered their first shot, as Christian Nørgaard’s header bounced back off the crossbar.
To give some credit to the hosts, they did grow in confidence towards the end of the half and came within inches of a leveller shortly before the interval.
It was little surprise to see Tyler Dibling at the heart of it, but this time he couldn’t find a magic moment, rifling an effort into the side netting.
Ivan Jurić had clearly seen enough by the time the HT whistle blew, and he made a double change at the break in an attempt to stem the Bees’ flow, but his changes had little impact in the opening stages of the second act.
In turn, the Saints instead allowed the ball in the net once again within 10 minutes of the restart, when Sepp van den Berg was afforded the freedom of St Mary’s to head home Bryan Mbeumo’s delivery.
Fortunately for the hosts though, a Yoane Wissa foul before Van den Berg headed in spared Southampton’s blushes.
Wissa had a huge chance to redeem himself on the hour mark when he raced through from the halfway line and was one-on-one with Ramsdale, but he incredibly struck his effort high and wide of the target.
The Gambian did eventually complete a successful redemption arc moments later though, when he teed up Mbeumo inside the area, and he hammered an effort into the roof of the net.
Mbeumo was then afforded the swift chance to secure a brace when Lesley Ugochukwu felled Van den Berg at the far post, and it was one he was in no mood to pass up, stroking the resulting penalty confidently into the corner of the Saints net.
From then on, it was a mere procession for Thomas Frank’s side, who knocked the ball about with consummate ease in the closing stages and added a fourth and fifth goal in stoppage time through Keane Lewis-Potter and Wissa respectively.
It was another fairly embarrassing performance by Southampton, who slumped to an 11th defeat in their last 13 games in all competitions and look destined for the drop.