Sonny's apology to 'unbelievable' Lo Celso

So impressed has Heung-Min Son been with Giovani Lo Celso’s recent performances that he felt the need to apologise to the Argentine midfielder for robbing him of a goal in Saturday’s FA Cup tie at Southampton.

Gio fired home in the first half of our eventual 1-1 draw at St Mary’s, only to see his effort chalked off after it brushed past Son in an off-side position on its way into the net.

We stayed on the front foot in the fourth round tie and eventually did manage to take the lead through Son following a terrific run from deep by Gio and subsequent pass from Erik Lamela, only for Sofiane Boufal’s 87th-minute goal to take us to a replay.

“I think he’s unbelievable!” smiled Son afterwards as he spoke about the on-loan Real Betis man’s form. “He’s working really hard in every single training session so I think every player is really happy for him to be doing so well and working so hard.

“Today I feel sorry because he scored but unfortunately I touched it with my leg. Normally it’s his goal…

“In general he’s a nice guy, working hard, so it’s a real pleasure to work with him, to play with him and I hope he can improve even more than this level. He likes to work, he likes to run, he likes to have the ball so it’s really nice to have team-mates like that and I’m really honoured to play with him in this team.”

South Korean international Son admitted he felt “sad” that we’ll have to try again to beat Southampton, having let our lead slip in the closing moments on the south coast. Nevertheless, he’s optimistic for the replay on home turf on Wednesday week (5 February).

“It’s disappointing because we were the better team, we had more chances than the other team but it’s a fact that we drew so we have to replay,” he said.

“I think the lads did a really, really good job to get us ahead. Gio dribbled past almost three or four players and played it to Coco (Lamela), Coco passed to me, unbelievable, so my job was only to do the finishing, so I’m grateful to the lads who made the opportunity.

“It’s quite sad that we drew but it’s a fact that we have to play at home, another game and we’ll see what’s going to happen.”