Yoshida relieved to open Premier League account with Southampton

Southampton’s Maya Yoshida admits some gentle pressure from his teammates had made him desperate to net a goal in the Saints’ win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old Japanese defender had not scored a Premier League goal for the Saints, before his 84th-minute tap-in helped his side to a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace.

Yoshida did score his first goal for Southampton against Norwich in the FA Cup back in January, but after scoring his tenth international goal for Japan last month, the centre-back revealed some of his teammates had suggested he was not pulling his weight.

“Cuco (Martina) told me before the game that I only ever score for Japan and that I don’t score in the Premier League, so I wanted to prove him wrong,” Yoshida joked.

“I’m happy that hopefully he will never be able to talk with me like this again!

“The most important thing is we got three points because we have been waiting for this win for a long time – especially after not playing at St Mary’s for so long either.

“Last month we didn’t play at home and we were, including the supporters, missing the winning feeling. The fans expected a lot from us, so we could answer that today and we’re really happy.

“The most important thing now is to win against West Brom [this weekend] because we can catch up with them really quickly.

“We have to be more clinical in front of goal. But we got three goals and hopefully there’s more goals to come at West Brom on Saturday.”