Rodriguez brace sees Southampton past Bournemouth

BOURNEMOUTH, United Kingdom: Southampton forward Jay Rodriguez bagged a brace to inspire his side’s 3-1 win against local rivals Bournemouth on Sunday.

Rodriguez hadn’t scored in the Premier League since August but he ended that barren stretch with a second-half double in the south coast derby at Dean Court.

Claude Puel’s team had fallen behind to Nathan Ake’s early opener, but Ryan Bertrand levelled soon after to set the stage for one of the better days in recent memory for the injury plagued Rodriguez.

Southampton’s second win in their last nine away league matches lifted them into seventh place, while Bournemouth remain in mid-table.

Just 33 miles separate these south coast rivals, but derbies between them have been few and far between.

The rariety of the fixture seemed to give extra intensity to both teams in a scintillating opening.

Eddie Howe’s side made the perfect start when on-loan Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere lofted a perfectly-weighted cross to the far corner, where Ake escaped his marker to plant a diving header past Southampton goalkeeper Fraser Forster.

Joshua King had a chance to increase Bournemouth’s lead with a powerful shot that Forster kicked away.

But Bournemouth were in front for only eight minutes as Saints left-back Bertrand equalised with a superb individual effort.

Twisting and turning on the left edge of the penalty area, Bertrand weaved through the Bournemouth defence before driving a blistering low strike into the far corner of Artur Boruc’s goal.

Puel sent on Steven Davis at half-time and the Northern Ireland midfielder played a key role as Southampton swept into the lead three minutes after the interval.

Sofiane Boufal’s backheel flick set Davis free and he surged into the penalty area before clipping a cross into the six-yard box for Rodriguez to score with a sliding effort.

Callum Wilson should have equalised moments later but the Bournemouth striker blasted over from inside the area.

Rodriguez threatened to follow his third goal of the season with another midway through the half, but Boruc was equal to his effort.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg almost wrapped up the points with a stinging shot that Ake cleared off the line, but it wasn’t long before Rodriguez delivered the killer blow in the 85th minute.

When Nathan Redmond lost control on the edge of the penalty area, the ball ran to Rodriguez, who unfurled a brilliant dipping shot that raced into the top corner.

On Saturday night, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice as Manchester United won 2-0 at West Bromwich Albion, while champions Leicester City weathered the dismissal of Jamie Vardy to come from 2-0 down and draw 2-2 at Stoke City.

Ibrahimovic opened the scoring in the fifth minute with a header from Jesse Lingard’s fine right-wing cross at the conclusion of a magnificent team move.

After Ben Foster had pushed a shot from Wayne Rooney onto the bar, Ibrahimovic added a second in the 56th minute.

The former Paris Saint-Germain striker darted between two defenders before scoring via a deflection off Craig Dawson, leaving him with nine goals from his last 10 appearances and 16 for the season.

“I keep saying that for me it is not his body, for me it is more up here,” Mourinho told BT Sport, pointing to his head.

“It is a pleasure to see him play, his happiness. It’s fantastic for a 35-year-old guy.”

He added: “That was very good. We played really well at Crystal Palace and today, even better.”

Leicester avoided a ninth defeat of the campaign thanks to an impressive fightback in a stormy game at Stoke, which left Claudio Ranieri’s men three points above the relegation zone in 15th place.

Vardy was shown a straight red card in the 28th minute for a two-footed challenge on Mame Biram Diouf, ruling the England striker out of Leicester’s entire festive programme.

Bojan Krkic put Stoke ahead with a 39th-minute penalty after Danny Simpson was adjudged to have handled his cross, with Joe Allen tapping in a second in first-half stoppage time.

But Leonardo Ulloa halved the deficit, smuggling a header over the line from fellow substitute Demarai Gray’s cross, before Christian Fuchs teed up Daniel Amartey to head in an 88th-minute leveller.

Middlesbrough moved above Leicester to 14th place after beating Swansea City 3-0 courtesy of a first-half Alvaro Negredo brace and a Marten de Roon volley.

Swansea dropped to second-bottom, with Sunderland climbing off the foot of the table after Patrick van Aanholt’s 49th-minute goal secured a 1-0 home win over Watford.

Hull City are now bottom following a 1-0 defeat at West Ham United, who prevailed through Mark Noble’s 76th-minute penalty after the visitors had hit the post three times.