Saints alive…long after the death knells

    1. Tottenham 54
    2. Leicester 53
    3. Arsenal 52
    4. Southampton 52
    5. Manchester City 50
    6. Liverpool 50
    7. Manchester United 50
    8. Chelsea 49

Along with illustrating that there is little difference between supposedly brilliant or disastrous form, the calendar year table from 2016 is astonishing for the identity of the club level on points with Arsenal and ahead of both Manchester clubs as well as Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, apparently not the last wonder of the world despite astonishing hype. Southampton stand out like a hipster in Halifax in such rich company (and Leicester) despite losing their manager, their two top scorers and their most combative midfielder during another potentially disastrous summer.

We should no longer be surprised at the seamless transition between Southampton managers, nor the ability to maintain speed over bumps that really should cause severe damage, and yet there were still suspicions that the magic trick had enjoyed its final encore. Barring the potential departure of either captain Jose Fonte or the imperious Virgil van Dijk, 2016’s round of exits could hardly have been more damaging. And yet, and yet…once again.

There were ‘suspicions’ and then there was downright disgust at Southampton’s choice of manager, with the Daily Mail’s Martin Samuel writing: ‘How can Claude Puel be a better bet for Southampton than Michael O’Neill after failing to win Ligue 1 with Lyon?’ As we wrote at the time, Saints have probably earned a little patience with their two previous appointments, and Puel’s club managerial experience – turning Nice into a European side, taking Lyon to the Champions League semi-finals – far outweighed that of the Northern Ireland manager at Brechin City and Shamrock Rovers.

But even as we delighted in pointing out the flaws in the arguments of Samuel and every other journalist and pundit who asked, for the 427th time, if there wasn’t a British manager who could do a better job, we had a niggling doubt that maybe this was the season that the naysayers would be right. After all, Puel did not arrive with the reputation or panache of Koeman and he did not sign obvious replacements for either Graziano Pelle or Victor Wanyama. As encouraging as the arrivals of Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Sofiane Boufal and Nathan Redmond appeared in terms of youthful promise, Puel’s new Southampton squad looked extraordinarily light.

That they now sit just one point below Manchester United (whose manager is being afforded patience after £150m of summer spending apparently still left him with a flawed squad), with a defensive record only beaten by their former manager at Tottenham, while still being competitive in Europe, is nothing short of astonishing. Their starting XI on Sunday against Manchester City contained just one new signing (Redmond) but six more who started 20 or fewer games for Southampton last season.

Of those six players, only Fraser Forster was seen as first choice by Koeman, who had marginalised Oriel Romeu, Jordy Clasie, Cuco Martina and Charlie Austin while sending Sam McQueen out on loan to League One Southend. The new man has looked in the back of the cupboards and in the door of the fridge and made something ridiculously tasty from pretty unappetising ingredients when other managers might have picked up the phone to order a takeaway. It turns out the awkward but sometimes effective Austin is the new Pelle, the forgotten Romeu (who was briefly brilliant at Chelsea) is the new Wanyama and Redmond is doing a pretty passable impression of Mane in a new, free role buzzing around the central striker.

The partnership of Fonte and Van Dijk needed little work but Puel has toiled to change the style ahead of them at Southampton, introducing the 4-3-3 that revitalised Nice. That gives Southampton’s most dangerous and unpredictable players – Redmond and Dusan Tadic – the licence to cause damage while three of Højbjerg, Steven Davis, Romeu and Clasie work hard to win and then keep the ball. And we are yet to really see £16m signing Boufal, whose dribbling statistics last season were second only to Hatem Ben Arfa in France; Puel may even get the chance to give Redmond a well-earned rest.

From being lower mid-table in possession and pass completion statistics last season, Southampton are now sit sixth and seventh respectively, even after a weekend when those numbers took a hammering at the Etihad. Puel preaches possession but not at the expense of creativity, and it’s telling that Southampton are now averaging 16.9 shots per game, up from 13.7 in Koeman’s last season. In a short space of time, the new Southampton manager has effected change in defiance of all logic.

Most of the coverage of Sunday’s 1-1 draw between Manchester City and Southampton understandably focused on the failure and flaws of Pep Guardiola’s Blues, but take a look at that table again: It should be no surprise that Southampton took a point; that’s the company they increasingly bizarrely keep.

Sarah Winterburn