Saints start a two game run that by the end of it will either see what is currently a solid start be a great opening period or perhaps a poor one.

Saints start to this season by their own standards has been brilliant, in the past three decades we have rarely won the opening game so a win and two draws is above our usual par score.

But in the context of the Premier league it would be more solid than spectacular and given the issues surrounding the club over the past few months, most Saints supporters would be happy with the first three games, yes it is disappointing that we haven't scored more goals, but that will come as we assimilate our two main signings in Lemina and Hoedt and hopefully bring Virgil Van Dijk back into the fold.

They are not attacking players but they will bring a stability that will enable us to attack wth the confidence that we can also defend the counter attack so can commit men forward, that is something we did very well under Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman but last season under Claude Puel especially in the second half of the season was not something that you could say.

So we now go into two games that will help define the season if we can take six points from the home game against Watford and then the trip to Crystal Palace then our start will be upgraded from solid to verging on spectacular, 11 points from 5 games would give us a great base to start the season with and would match our record in 2014/15 when after the opening day defeat at Liverpool we then started on a run that gave us terrific momentum and carried us through the first half of the season.

But if we should fail to win either of these games then suddenly that solid start does not look that steady at all, in fact it would leave us looking over our shoulders a little.

If we are to get back into the top 7 and have a shot at qualifying for Europe again then we need to be looking at averaging 1.6 points per game, tis is what Everton achieved last season and we ourselves achieved two years ago, of course this is not an exact science but it is a good barometer to assess where we stand at any given point in the season.

So far we are just slightly ahead of target on 1.66 per game, a couple of good wins would push that ratio up and of course give us some momentum as we go into a run of some much tougher games in October and November.

So Saints fans should be happy with what we have achieved so far especially given the issues we have had, but hopefully they are all now behind us, at least for a few months and we can concentrate on what goes on on the pitch and not off it.

Photo: Action Images

bstokesaint added 12:32 - Sep 7 Whilst I agree with your comments Nick about what we have achieved and what we need to target, I'm still very skeptical that our tightening of defence will just bring goals. My views on Southampton generally fluctuate between pragmatic and optimistic and I can't help but feel that where scoring goals are concerned it pushes optimism to new levels. Koeman had Pelle and Mane to call on, two players we haven't really replaced. I actually think Redmond will improve, but he will never be a Mane, and Austin doesn't have the same presence and hold-up ability that Pelle had, which created chances for others around him. The only person I can see scoring goals for us regularly therefore is Gabbi. And for that to happen we need someone who has the intelligence to spot his runs. Therein lies another problem.

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saintpp added 12:34 - Sep 7 yes two massive games coming up points wise to set the season up.a win and a draw would ok and i for one dont care how we achieve it as could make big difference to how the season pans out
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SonicBoom added 12:46 - Sep 7 I would say that Mane is obviously hard to replace for any team. If he was then Liverpool wouldn' have need to spend the thick oend of 40 million on him. I don't think Pelle was THAT great. He needed chances on a plate and the ball in front of him. He held the ball up well but often that translated into slowing the move down, in fact the reason we were happy to let him go was his lack of mobility seen as crucial in the modern game. Our system does not require the traditional big lump up front. In fact I would say that both Austin and Gabbiadini are better finishers. Actually Austin, given the ball in the box either in the air or to feet, and I think he could well score 15 odd goals this year. He deserves his chance I think as since his hot start Gabbiadini hasn't produced a great deal.

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luffy22 added 12:56 - Sep 7 As much as I want to positive and it be a great season ahead it’s not been a solid start by a long way, we’ve have played 3 teams that will be in the bottom third of the league at the end of the season and 1 team from the division below. We have only scored in one of those games and conceded 4 goals. 3 of those games were at home. Now if that was against top 6 opposition or it was away games it would be time to celibate, but currently no. You need to rewrite this in 6 games time.

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SanMarco added 13:02 - Sep 7 I agree that Pelle wasn't THAT great but he played a role. I remember him, in that 3-1 at Stamford Bridge and a couple of games at Stoke amongst others, making a DIFFERENCE. Mane had that too, he wasn't always brilliant but he was a game changer. We don't have that now - maybe Gabbi if we could get the ball to him, but that seems to be a big IF. As to the start to the season our first five games will have not been of the toughest so anything less than 9 points will have hardly been a brilliant start. I agree though that given the way we sometimes start that would be a good base for improvement in the tougher challenges ahead.

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skiptonsaint added 13:15 - Sep 7 if we don't start scoring then I would like to see Gabbi wide in the three behind Austin. As we know Gabbi has played there before in Italy and that shot from outside the box that hit the bar (West Ham game ?) shows he could' be deadly cutting in. Also the two of them are then on the pitch and in the box for set pieces , corners etc....with height from VVD and Hoedt to worry about as well for opposing defences

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IWOZTHERE added 13:24 - Sep 7 You're right luffy, those are the cold hard facts. Ok ,we've two players to blend in, very confident about Lemina and hopeful about Hoedt slotting in. I won't mention the big guy. Oh for a settled pre-season though, and we always seem to be one class player away from being the real deal. This season, (and the last couple), it's the lack of a creative midfielder that I think will hold us back again. No point now in saying we should have grabbed the VVD and used it wisely but I'll say it anyway. We need to take a step up before the likes of RB,OR and Gabbi become restless.

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SaintNick added 13:34 - Sep 7 Mane is now spoken about in ver hushed tones, but the factwas we got £35 million for him, he might be a £35 million player for Liverpool but he wasnt for us, in his last season he only came good in the final 8 games, for the previous 20 he had been largely annonymous, he wasnt poor and it wasnt for a lack of trying, but his shooting and passing were woeful for a long period in both that season and the one before. With a strong defence and two good holding players we can commit players forward when we attack, something we could not do last year especially after Xmas, for the first couple of months of 2017 we continued to do so and just kept getting caught on the break, hence we changed our strategy to keeping the entire midfield behind the ball at all times. Now we can commit more as we have the likes of Romeu and lemina who can defend, not to mention Hoedt who will add pace in the centre of defence

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bstokesaint added 13:52 - Sep 7 I hope you're right Nick. I still think in today's market Mane is probably worth double what Liverpool paid for him. He's twice the player Oxlade-Chamberlain is and is always going to be a threat. He did have a long barren spell for Saints, but you always knew he'd come good again. His pace is unreal and no defender is comfortable living with that. His first touch is often poor, but at worse he gets away with it by being quickest to react to a miscontrol and winning a free kick. For me he's the best attacking player we've had for many years. I half hoped the Mane algorithm in the Black Box might produce a match over the summer..

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bstokesaint added 13:55 - Sep 7 Also the other great thing about Mane was he was the perfect partner for Shane Long. With Long's pressing it forced defenders to make mistakes which we could actually capitalize on. Defences were getting battered from all over. Now when Shane plays he busts a gut basically for nothing.
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SaintBrock added 17:05 - Sep 7 They do Nick, they do but why would we expect anything to change anytime soon. We will still struggle to score so even a clean sheet will only take us part of the way. I think Pellegrino will settle for 'mean' before we become 'expansive'. The way I read him is caution first, build a solid base and then move on from that platform. With Hoedt, vD & and Lemina to bed down, bring up to speed and then fully integrate into his preferred back six, this part of squad development will take a little time, so don't expect miracles at the moment. Big 0-0 on the cards. As for vD, much will depend upon how long he will stay. If he has said he'll stay for the season than he can be brought into the team but if he's off after Christmas then there is no point.

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SaintBrock added 17:06 - Sep 7 Freudian slip by Pellegrino when he said until January at least?
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