LONDON (Reuters) - Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk played his first few minutes of the season in their 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday with manager Mauricio Pellegrino hoping for three months without transfer issues involving the Dutch defender. Van Dijk was sidelined from the Saints first-team squad while they fended off approaches from Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea during the still-open transfer window in the first month of the Premier League season. Pellegrino sent van Dijk on for the final 10 minutes at Selhurst Park and said he hoped the controversy surrounding the Dutch player’s desire to move to a bigger club was over at least until the January transfer window. It was Saints’ second win in five matches with eight points on the board. “It was an important win, to win on this (small Palace) pitch is not easy... We controlled the ball and that’s something to improve,” Pochettino said as he looked ahead to their match at home to Manchester United next Saturday.

Source: The Star September 16, 2017 15:22 UTC