Saints fans can take heart, a look back over the years of the Premier League suggests that there will only be one of three teams who can now possibly win it.

Southampton Football Club Premier league Winners 2014/15 !!!!!!!

Well we can all dream, however this is not a far fetched notion as it now stands, indeed if we take a look back over the Premier league at this stage over every other season, then statistics tell us that Saints could win the League but the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool,Man Utd etc won't.

Saints sit in second place with 22 points after 10 games, 4 behind leaders Chelsea and 2 ahead of Manchester City, if we look at any Premier League table since its inaugural season in 1992/93 then we find that no team has won the Premier League with less than 18 points after 10 games, bad news for Arsenal back in 4th with a mere 18, but good news for Saints who if history is to repeat itself are one of only three teams who stand a chance of winning the ultimate prize.

Indeed Manchester United's 18 points after 10 games in both 1992/93 and again in 2002/03 is the lowest points total at this stage of a season that the eventual champions have had, although last season Manchester City came close with only 19 points after 10 games.

So good news for Saints fans, but bad news for Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool and any other team with title aspirations, who now need to completely turn the history books on their heads if they are to claim another title and whose main job for the rest of the season will surely be to look to take points off of Chelsea and City and enable the third team in the race for the title to come in on the blind side.

Last weekend was massive in the title challenge race, if Manchester City had lost to their oldest rivals then with only 17 points on the board they would have had to graciously acknowledge their title challenge for this season would now be an impossible task and now only Saints could be capable of catching Chelsea by May 24th in what would have been a two horse sprint for the finish line.

Our job now is to remain focused and hope that the also ran's can help us out, City are holding on to our coat tales and have a tough couple of games before arriving at St Mary's on the 30th November a bad month could see them drop out of the title race and leave us to battle it out tongue in cheek with Chelsea.

Photo: Action Images

patred added 09:49 - Nov 4 please please Nick..I dare not dream of a top 4 place, for fear it all goes tits up.. Whisper it amongst ourselves, but please don't speak it out loud..
5

Whatsforpud added 10:07 - Nov 4 Has there ever been such a dramatic rise in the fortunes of any club in the modern era? In 6 years, having survived meltdown, going from minus 10 points in the 3rd tier, to 2nd in the (arguably) highest regarded league in the world. Wonder what odds the bookies would have given you on that happening.
0

Dan_P326 added 10:13 - Nov 4 Such exciting times to be a Saints fan, but I'm going to try to not get too carried away until we've gone through our difficult stretch of games coming up...
2

FrankSaint added 10:34 - Nov 4 I agree we must not get carried away. But at the same time we need to undermine the widespread stereotyping of Saints as simply another provincial club. If we accept that narrative then we are basically waiting for a fall and almost willing it to happen by default. Accepting being also rans could incrementally undermine the confidence of the team and the fans each time we win again. So there is an argument for 'normalising' our success so I welcome Nick's tack. Let's remember he is building on what Ryan Bernard said when he challenged the commentators after the Hull game who claim that a fall is inevitable. And even Ronko is saying nothing in football can be ruled out. After all back in the 80s Saints being in Europe and at the top of the table was not so extraordinary. And now we still have the 'Spirit of Southampton' with the addition of a bigger stadium full of fans who still sing and stamp their feet (unlike Chelsea), a world class back office and we are one of the richest clubs in the world and free of debt. Our academy means we can work around the limits of the FFP Rules which will hold back most other clubs our size. We don't have the distraction of Europe and we Saints fans don't put the kind of pressure on the players that the fans of the top six clubs do. Let's march on and challenge the rest to prove they can stop us. Bring it on. Mind games and all. Amen.

1

ChristchurchSaint added 11:16 - Nov 4 We can dream, Nick! That would, no doubt, be the surprise that none of our "expert pundits" would ever see coming! However, having said all that, we all know that there is always an element of luck involved. You said yesterday about our "Magnificent 7 X3",- if we avoided major injuries and the luck did go with us, then who knows what we can achieve. There is, without any doubt, that we have the ability to stay there or thereabouts, and as Frank saint states, we do not have the pressures of European football ( but we would like it next year!) and we do not pressurise the players/club because our expectations have not been so high. Let's just wait and see ( and hope!!)

0

AntipodeanSaint added 11:53 - Nov 4 Western Sydney Wanderers won the Asian Champions League this week. They weren't even in existence 5 years ago. However, they weren't playing the type of quality football that Saints are at the moment though.
0

REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 12:45 - Nov 4 Our next 5 games will have a massive influence on our top 4 ambitions: Southampton v Leicester Aston Villa v Southampton Southampton v Man City Arsenal v Southampton Southampton v Man Utd If you want to finish in the top 4 then you need over 70 points at least and you can't afford to lose to your CL rivals. So Saints probably need to beat both Leicester and Villa and then get 5 points from their next three games. If we achieve that then we'll be bang on track going into the incredibly testing Christmas period. At least we have J-Rod to come back in at some point, he will feel like having a new signing and it might be just at the time when we really need it!

0

cheltenhamsaint added 13:03 - Nov 4 I do enjoy a bit of statistical analysis and projection, whilst accepting it is thankfully not an exact science by any stretch of the imagination. Very interesting to read Nick's stat and I can throw into the pot that the Premier league has never been won by a team losing more than five games. And one I picked up from another source this morning is that any team having 22 points after 10 games has a 95% chance of finishing in the top six, reducing to 85% to finish in the top 4.

1

SaintMaw added 13:34 - Nov 4 What we need is to come in to those games in form and with all of our players back from injury. Then we will have the depth and confidence to win. The Leicester City and Aston Villa games may be more crucial than the games with the those "big clubs". Still need to win them all though.
0

BoondockSaint added 14:01 - Nov 4 Just think of it, don't say it aloud! There's always exception to every rule-so let's not be the one!
1

Jesus_02 added 08:01 - Nov 5 Interesting to note that Man City have 4 games before we meet while we only have 2. If we can get results at home to Leicester and away to Villa then we won’t have a better chance to beat Man City at home. I wonder if Pellegrino will consider fielding a weakened team against Bayern Munich.
2

Blogs 31 bloggers

Bury Polls