Match Stats: Southampton Open The Campaign With A Point

Earlier today Southampton hosted Sean Dyche’s Burnley side at St Mary’s Stadium for our big kick-off to the 2018/19 Premier League campaign.

With plenty of disappointment from last season as we skirted relegation in 2017/18, Southampton fans have been largely happy buoyed by our captures in the permanent transfer market and we don’t quite know if we’re finished yet with a punt at a loan or two before the end of the month.

It was a mixed pre-season though in terms of results and performance as our newbies settle and confidence grows again, but we opened the year with a point in a scoreless draw and Alex McCarthy’s stock continues to rise after his highlight last campaign as he put in another good showing to take a clean sheet in the game.

With Burnley having an early competitive start to the year with their Europa League involvement, they were largely sharper than we were and it took us a while to get going but whilst there’s a significant improvement to be made, overall I think the game carried a number of positives that can be built on.

After last season, I’ll take that from the opening day gladly.