Under Ronald Koeman Saints would regularly shock the so called Big Six sides, but since his departure they have failed to register a single win over one of these sides in the Premier League.

The past two seasons have not been great, no one would argue against that, they have been ones of turmoil even though in the first a 8th finish in the Premier League and a League Cup final lost in the final minute showed that the season was not as bad statistically as it was sometimes on the pitch.

But in those two seasons we have failed to beat a Big six side and that is a sad statistic.

Out of the 25 Premier League games played against the Big Six we have lost 19 and drawn only 6 up to and including the defeat to Liverpool a couple of weeks ago.

Ironically we have fared better in the cups in that time, winning at Liverpool and Arsenal in the League cup as well as beating Liverpool at home, but in the League it's a different story altogether.

We have come close, we almost beat Arsenal last December with a late Olivier Giroud header, highlighting our lapses in concentration and perhaps being a real turning point, if we had held on and won that game perhaps that might have provided the spark to gain confidence and change the course of the season, but instead it saw only a big decline.

This pattern has to change, yes football in the Premier League has moved on even in the two years since Koeman left, more and more money has poured in and most of it isn't really helping the other 14 clubs in the Premier league who merely see increased TV money revenue pushing up prices for mediocre players.

So on Sunday against Chelsea we really could do with beating them for a number of reasons.

Firstly we could obviously do with the points, secondly we need to show our own supporters not only that we can still beat the big six but we can beat anyone, we need to start to restore the confidence not only in the players but the supporters and this would be a good way to do it.

We need to put in a performance even if we ultimately lose.

Sadly those outside the Big Six are now becoming canon fodder, victories against them by the rest of us minnions are becoming rarer and rarer unless one of them is in meltdown as Manchester United seem to be at the moment.

Saints need to puta smile back on the face of their fans, Ronald Koeman managed a win against all of them in his final season in charge and that sparked our season into life with 5 of those wins coming in the second half of the season after Arsenal were destroyed at St Mary's on Boxing Day.

These wins turned what could have been an average season into a great one and we now need to try and find the same inner strength that Ronald Koeman found in his players.

Photo: Action Images

arthurfane added 09:23 - Oct 5 It's scarcely believable we beat Chelsea, Arsenal, United, Liverpool, City and Spurs in Koeman's last season in charge - would love to beat just one of them now . . .
3

DorsetIan added 09:36 - Oct 5 I'm not holding my breath!
4

saintjf added 12:13 - Oct 5 Chelsea ended up 10th and Liverpool 8th in 2016 which was Koemans last season with Saints. Leicester were champions. The 'big' clubs have improved since then. Not sure Saints have. I would take a draw......
4

bstokesaint added 13:13 - Oct 5 Saintjf, we also beat Arsenal (2nd), Spurs (3rd), Man C (4th) and Man U (5th). If there was any element of doubt I can categorically confirm we have got significantly worse since. If we could just keep Giroud at bay that would be a positive at least. A draw would be an amazing (albeit totally unrealistic) result.
6

A1079 added 13:24 - Oct 5 Top, middle or bottom, I would take beating anyone, since a win, is rare at all levels when it comes to Saints.
8

saintmark1976 added 14:39 - Oct 5 That will be the same Ronald Koeman and his brother that the owner at the time together with her remarkable shambolic (and still current) management team were happy to let go then will it? Apparently the Koemans wanted to stay but we couldn't give them a salary increase. Now we are relegation fodder with forty million pounds worth of post Koeman "talent" lent out to clubs all over Europe. Not forgetting of course the millions of pounds wasted in hiring and firing subsequent managers and their staff.

7

SanMarco added 17:40 - Oct 5 saintmark1976: Is that true? I didn't realise it was over salary - I thought he took one look at Les Reed's future plans and screamed 'get me a taxi to Everton'...
5

petedoors1 added 10:39 - Oct 6 Its Les Reed who needs a Taxi out of Southampton.
3

saintmark1976 added 10:41 - Oct 6 I like your comment SanMarco. Either way, the owners and their frankly pathetic management team have reduced the club to the point where twenty four odd hours before the match we now can't even sell out against Chelsea. This despite no increase in ticket prices for years.Says it all really.
4

straight_pass added 10:44 - Oct 6 1079 Speaks my exact thoughts, it’s good to aim high but current reality is we need to beat mid and lower table teams first! The sooner we get back to strong, entertaining home game performances the better, this has always been critical requirement for any competitive team. So, I'll also gladly take a win against anyone!!
3

SaintBrock added 20:13 - Oct 6 Beating a top team home or away is becoming less likely each season simply because of their enormous spending power and the consequential influx of some of the best players on the planet to join those teams whilst clubs like ours have to dine on the scraps falling from the top table. The gap just keeps getting wider every year so past results have little bearing on what can be achieved today. Inevitably, knowing that defeat is almost a certainty many cash strapped fans just won't bother to spend £30/40 to attend even if they love the Saints. It's a poor state of affairs without an obvious solution.

4

JimmyMeliaPhD added 06:53 - Oct 7 SaintBrock....Obvious solution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salary_cap
0

perazi added 09:42 - Oct 7 While I agree with the praise being bestowed on Ronald K., let's not forget he had the incredible talent of Mane, and the class of Wanyama, Morgan, Toby and Pelle to guide Koeman's second season. That talent is sorely missed.
2

underweststand added 10:32 - Oct 7 Good point.perazi.. Thos ewho recall Koeman's time as "the good old days" should recall that Koeman bought in 8 players during his first season, and we succeeded at the expense of a bad lapse in form from Liverpool, Chelsea who finished below us, and a very mediocre MU In the current situation any points that " the other 14 clubs " get against a Top 6 side must seem like an unexpected Christmas present, and Saints have to hope that we can gain a few as we have 8 League fixtures between Dec.1st and January 1st. and 5 of those are against Top 6 sides- not including our away fixture v. Man City in November. ..(ouch). IF...MH is still manager after January 1st.... he'll need to pull more than a few very special performances out of his hat...or we'll be looking for yet another new manager.

0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Aston Villa Polls