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Can Southampton avoid the drop?

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We’re now 4 games into the season and clubs have set their foothold for the forthcoming year. Of course it’s too early for anything to be decided just yet, but teams performances can give us an early indication. Southampton have had a tough start to the season, an extremely tough start. They lost to both Manchester clubs after putting up a fight but were outclassed and annihilated by Arsenal at the Emirates. To add to this, they also suffered a disappointing defeat at home to Wigan. 0 points from 4 games is not a good start, no matter how unlucky you may have been. Can the Saints turn it around?

At the moment things aren’t too bad, they’ll be boosted by their performances and will look forward to the campaign ahead. However, the problem occurs when they start playing sides that they can beat, if they aren’t successful it will become more and more difficult due to the players morale level. September is a massive month for them, the longer they continue to not accumulate any points the harder it will become to earn them.

Their fixture list is starting to settle down now, they face Villa at home this weekend before tackling Everton at Goodison Park. The Saints could case an argument to win 4 points from this match and they should aspire to do so. These games will be tough, but we’ve seen from their early performances that they do have a decent ability. However, I’ve noticed something very worrying.

The two matches that they have played well in were against United and City. They travelled to the Etihad on the opening day, tackling the Premier League champions in their first game after returning to the top tier of English football. Due to this, they would have had adrenaline pumping and would have been really up for it. As for United, this was their first home match against a big club and the effects were the same as I mentioned above. Frankly, at the moment it seems that Southampton are a Jekyll and Hyde sort of team.

It was always going to be difficult for Southampton this season. The step up from Championship football to the Premier League is a huge leap. I’ve had them noted for the drop since the Summer and my views have not changed. They are too inconsistent and consistency is key to the Premier League. However, they are not doomed. There is still 34 games to go and plenty of football to play. The start of the season is massively important though, so I’m worried with the way things have set up for them.

They’ll take comfort in the fact that they have performed well and given some big teams a battle, but there comes a point where you have to assess the situation. Would you rather perform well and get some good results against the top teams but be relegated, or get thrashed by the top teams and ultimately stay up. For me, that’s a no brainer.

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18 year old Multimedia Journalism student at Teesside Univrsity. Avid Arsenal and Athletic Bilbao fan.

Follow me on Twitter: @challies11