After an encouraging summer that the saw the arrival of two highly-rated youngsters and a wave of deadwood leave the club, there was some genuine hope around Southampton for this season.
How wrong we were.
Will Southampton claim Premier League survival?
Yes
No
12 games into the Premier League season, and Saints supporters are already counting down the days till the 2019/20 campaign is done and dusted as the south coast side currently sit in 19th in the league table, conceding the most goals out of any English top-flight side so far and looking unlikely to make up the three points needed to escape the relegation zone.
Supporters are already fearing the worst, yet for Stuart Armstrong, the prospect of relegation is yet to hit the Scottish international, who speaking to The Southern Daily Echo admitted that it’s still too early to call if the club are in danger of facing the drop.
The former Celtic star said: “We certainly need to get some points out of them because nobody wants to be towards the bottom of the table. Points are very important for us at the moment. I think it’s still very early days [to think about relegation].”
Indeed, it is in a player’s media training to dismiss fears of this magnitude to supporters no matter how dire the situation is, yet even for some of the names at Southampton, they are kidding themselves if they don’t believe that there is a genuine chance of the club getting relegated and that it is too early to predict.
With nearly a third of the Premier League season in the books, Armstrong knows well enough that sitting in the relegation zone at this stage of the season could set in motion events that see the club remain in the danger area of the table, and the prospect of dropping down to the Championship is a real possibility for Southampton.
Results have to pick up following the international break, and for supporters, they will be hoping their team gets their heads back into gear and that they can start fighting for every single point that they can earn.
