Southampton suffered a humiliating 5-0 defeat to Tottenham at St. Mary’s Stadium on Sunday, and winger Kamaldeen Sulemana had a particularly frustrating night. The Ghana international was substituted just 15 minutes into the match after his side conceded three quick goals. The early substitution, followed by visible frustration on the bench, added to a difficult evening for Sulemana, who was making his first Premier League start of the season.
Tottenham made history by scoring five first-half goals, with James Maddison opening the scoring just 37 seconds in. Son Heung-min doubled the lead in the 12th minute, and two minutes later, Dejan Kulusevski capitalized on a defensive error to make it 3-0. Pape Sarr added a fourth, and Maddison rounded off the first half with his second goal.
In response to the early goals, Southampton manager Russell Martin made the decision to replace Sulemana with defender Nathan Wood in the 15th minute to try and shore up the team’s defense. Sulemana, who had started in attack, was clearly frustrated and was seen arguing with assistant coach Matt Gill after being subbed off. Martin later explained the decision, saying, “We’re 3-0 down in 14 minutes. You could take anyone off, but at that point, we needed a defender to plug the gaps.” He added that Sulemana hadn’t played many minutes recently, so he was unlikely to last long in the match anyway.
Following the heavy defeat, Southampton parted ways with Russell Martin, who had overseen a challenging start to the season. The loss to Spurs was their 13th in 16 league games, leaving them nine points from safety. Martin had led Southampton back to the Premier League last season by winning the play-off final against Leeds United, but his tenure was marked by struggles, culminating in this damaging defeat.
Kamaldeen Sulemana will now work under a new manager as the club looks to turn its fortunes around.
