Saints have just had their second best start to a top flight season, but can they go that little bit better than Saints best ever League team of 1983/84

Saints have won 4, drawn 1 and lost 1 out of their opening 6 games this season and in the process racked up 13 points, but this is still not our best ever start to a top flight season after 6 games, that honour falls to the side of 1983/84 who won 4 and drew 2 of their openers to pip this years total by 1 point.

The older Saints fans will find it hard for that years team to be beaten in terms of quality, they had a tough start

Nottingham Forest A 1-0 (Forest finished 3rd)
QPR H 0-0 ( QPR finished 5th)
Arsenal H 1-0 ( Arsenal finished 6th)
Liverpool A 1-1 (Liverpool finished 1st)
Sunderland A 2-0 ( Sunderland finished 13th)
Manchester United H 3-0 ( Man Utd finished 4th)

It could not have been a tougher start back then, out of the opening games five were against the other teams who finished in the top six, although like this year surprisingly this was not enough for us to top the table, that honour fell to West Ham with 15 points, the Hammers would eventually finish 9th.

But the seventh game in the season would be a game too far, we travelled to Aston Villa and went down 1-0 and this started a poor run of 9 games where we would only win 2 and lose 5, perhaps unknowingly at the time blowing the title in the process as at the end of the season we finished 2nd only 3 points behind Champions Liverpool.

So can Saints go one better than the team of 1983/84 ? Now even I would not claim that we could go one place betterand finish top of the league, however we could go one game better in the start to the season and beat Spurs, thus beating that start back then.

If we could do that it would be great on two accounts, firstly because we will have kept our good run going and secondly due to the fact that we will have beaten Spurs and our former boss Mauriccio Pochettino and that is always a pleasure, no matter who is in charge.

Like Saints of 1983/84 though it will be the next 9 games that will define our season, we now have some winnable games in the pipeline, our task now will be to win them and get a momentum going that will be hard to stop, the job for around 15 teams in the Premier League every year is to have a season where from the very off you are not looking over your shoulder at relegation, we found that last season and it enabled us to play without fear, if we can do that now in the next few games or so it will give us a platform to build on for the rest of the season and who knows what we can achieve after that.

Is Champions League qualification beyond us ? the answer is probably, but we can look to try and beat the 8th place we managed last year, of course its early days yet to try and predict that but the table shows that Everton might not be the force they were last year, Liverpool are struggling as are Manchester United, even Spurs are not convincing so far.

The message is clear, Saints could shock the Premier league by moving up a place or two and that would be real progress, not only that but it would send out a message not only to our own players but to those that we are trying to sign, if we could win a cup as well and get into Europe that could truly help us in making quality signings, all players like to play in European competition and if you can offer that it makes persuading those playersto join you a lot easier, put bluntly next summer Spurs will come a calling again, if we were to be in the Europa League and they weren't they would be more easily repelled.

As many know I rarely get carried away, I always believe in the Lawrie McMenemy approach of being quietly confident in your own abilities, know what you can do and what you can't do.

In 1983/84 Saints were not a fancied side, the previous season had seen them finish 12 after the summer of 1982 when although Peter Shilton joined we lost Kevin Keegan, Mick Channon and then Alan Ball, at the end of that season Chris Nicholl left as did Malcolm Waldron, it wasn't as in so drastic fashion as today but in the space of little over a year we had lost the heart of our side and the pundits were not predicting great things for us with a side that included "has beens" like Mick Mills & Frank Worthington alongside a bunch of kids, the only players who could be considered truly class and at their peak were Shilton, Nick Holmes, Steve Williams & Dave Armstrong.

But we astounded all expectations and maybe the Saints side of today can do the same, the Premier League has changed the game since those days though, back then it was possible for sides like Saints and Ipswich to challenge the big clubs, now money talks and the opportunities are not there as they once where, however we can continue to build and move forward and this season could well be talked about amongst the supporters of today in future years, as that great season 31 years ago is revered by Saints supporters of a certain age.

Photo: Action Images

ItchenNorth added 10:44 - Sep 29 Cortese would be proud of you Nick, daring to dream !
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ThereIn76 added 11:18 - Sep 29 That was an amazing season especially considering how few players were used. The rocky patch occurred when we had a few injuries and had to recall Dennis Rofe and play Martin Foyle in midfield and we lost at Norwich and Leicester. With more depth in the squad we might have secured those extra four points that would have made us champions!
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COYS1947 added 11:35 - Sep 29 I am with Ronald Koeman, take a picture of the table. While I am not pessimistic, we have only played one top side. Will be happier after 10 games or more realistically 19 when things will start to even out, especially if we are still in the top 6. On the subject of the none day off for the team. I sensed they were a little jaded at the beginning of the game against QPR and some of the flicks and passes were not quite there, but they made up for that second half.

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WestSussexSaint added 12:43 - Sep 29 With the fixtures over Oct & most of November there is no reason why we still cannot be in or around the top 4. If we have realistic ambitions of finishing better than last season then we will need to have a sufficient buffer from the rest by the time Man City arrive on 30 Nov as the fixture run from then through to mid Jan is tough.
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slynch added 16:17 - Sep 29 Mirror Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all... http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/what-lallana-shaw-co-common-4338892?
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davepid added 21:09 - Sep 29 Please let's not get carried away. I was expecting a walk in the park against QPR and as a consequence I felt very flat after the match. We have achieved the impossible: a big profit from the closed season transfers and strengthened the squad . But let's wait to see how we cope with the bigger clubs and cope with a few injuries along the way. Weren't we playing we'll start of last season and the wheels came off a bit with injuries and our hair kari errors against arsenal.

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VancouverSaint added 21:29 - Sep 29 Why does everyone say the because of FFP rules that we can't break into the Elite 6 (Chelsea, MU, MC, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs)? We have a terrific manager that was an outstanding defender in his day. He has tons of top management experience from Europe. It is demonstrated by our present position with the least goals against in the PL. We have goals too, I think Pelle is better or as good as Lambert, he holds up and plays balls off well. He's strong and man, can he score? Jay R will not miss a beat because of this. We have wingers, we have a terrific midfield and with Toby playing well our defence is great. Fraser is a giant in goal. We have depth in just about every position. I think Bertram is better than Shaw, he's even go a goal before Luke. Clyne is better than last this year. I haven't even mentioned Morgan, Wanyama, Cork, Davis.. Why will FFP stop us from getting as high as 4th. Can someone explain this to me.

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Saintsfaninoz added 11:12 - Sep 30 I posted this on facebook, but just in case it is not linked to this page...I vividly remember the 83/84 season. I remember when we beat Man City at The Dell to go top of Div 1. The bus ride home with many other Saints fans yelling "Champions!" at the top of our voices!! We ended up runners-up, of course, but for a few months, we were able to dream!! Premier League winner is (realistically) out of our grasp, now, unlike 83/84 when a small club on the South Coast could realistically challenge the big boys, but the team itself is better than ever! All I want is to watch good football and know that the players will give their best effort for the club. Anything above that is a bonus. GO SAINTS!!!

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 12:36 - Sep 30 Vancouver - FFP rules state that for a club like Southampton, they are not allowed to post losses of more than £105m over a three year period. This means that we cannot have a net spend on transfers of more than about £60m-£70m year after year. Not that Katherina would want to spend this amount anyway. The popular view is that the only way to break into the top 6 and stay there is to spend big year on year to accumulate the best players. FFP rules effectively stop Southampton buying their way in to the top 6 like Chelsea and Man City did. The way this season is going, Saints could be pushing for top 6 after a net income of about £40m on transfers which is amazing! Saints have the option to buy Bertrand for £10m and Alderwiereld for £6.5m so they'll definitely try to get these deals done this season and still have plenty in the bank. Basically, FFP rules won't effect us. Katherina won't be looking to pump that much into the club and as long as our wage bill isn't more than £1m per week, which I don't think it is, then we won't be restricted and we can potentially break into the top 6 without breaking the bank!

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