After a slow but steady start to the season some Saints supporters are already beginning to mutter about Mauricio Pellegrino's tactics, but the last few years should have taught us something about patience.
Last season Claude Puel was damned by a section of Saints support almost from the first month of the season and it was something that the French manager never ever recovered from, meaning that come the end of the season even an 8th place finish and a Cup Final at Wembley, arguably one of the top five succesful seasons in the club's history in terms of achievement, was not enough to save his job.
In his first 8 games in charge last season Puel took 12 points a total that suggests that those writing him off so early were premature, that compares favourably with the 9 points Pellegrino has amassed so far this season, but it it is not so far different that a couple of good wins could not change it.
But how does that compare with the first 8 games of other seasons ?
Two years ago in Ronald Koeman's 2nd season he had exactly the same number of points as Puel, 12 and in his first season 16 in what was our best to flight start in many a year.
Mauricio Pochettino's time at Saints is lauded as a great success, but it should be mentioned that in his first 8 games in charge he gained exactly the same number of points as Pellegrino has so far this, a good omen perhaps.
In his only full year in charge Pochettino took 15 points from the first 8 games.
So what these stats tell us is that in the last four seasons we have had two good starts and two distinctly average ones, yet the end result after 38 games has broadly been the same, suggesting that a football season is a marathon not a sprint and that to isolate the first part of a season and use it to write off the rest of it would be wrong.
Each season is very different in terms of points totals and what would not be good enough to get you into any given place one season, might be more than enough in another.
From that point of view the trend in the Premier league seems to be that there are a lot more draws than there used to be, in 2013/14 the Pochettino season, his 15 points had us in 6th place, but this seasons total 9 would have seen us in 15th, yet is now good enough for 11th, as the weekends results showed, the mid table is much of a muchness and there are far more draws.
So whilst it cannot be denied that in terms of points Mauricio Pellegrino has not matched any of his predecessors since our return to the Premier league aside from Nigel Adkins, the fact remains that it is not a disastrous start and one that could easily be turned into a good one with a couple of good wins.
Last season saw Claude Puel hounded despite the fact that right up to the final 10 games or so he was not that far different from most other seasons, the fans perceived that this was the "worst season ever" as I often saw quoted on social media, the reality as mentioned earlier was far different, in terms of League position and achievement in reaching a Cup Final it was right up there with virtually any other season you care to mention, but the supporters did not perceive that due to the lack of entertainment.
One interesting fact that I found was that two years ago when we stormed to 6th our best League position in over 30 years after 28 games we had 40 points, only 6 more than Puel had from the same number of games last season.
Yes but we were entertaining and scoring goals most would say ! Wrong, Koeman's side had scored 35 and let in 28, Puels side at that stage had only scored 2 less with 33, the difference was that we had let in 36.
Again the lesson is to be patient, the fans stayed behind Koeman and we forged forward, whereas last season there were many more issues and Puel was not given the leeway he should have been.
But that is now history and we need to learn from it and be careful what we wish for, if anyone expected Mauricio Pellegrino to come in and wave a magic wand and everything would be all right then they were naive, he has to be given time to impose his ways and get the team playing the way he wants it too.
We do not want to drag ourselves into the situation of last season where some supporters wre proclaiming that they would not go to Wembley for a cup final because they would not be entertained, we need to give Mauricio Pellegrino the time and support that a sizeable portion of our support last season did not give Puel.
Slowly we are starting to find our way forward under the new manager, those that say the squad is not good enough should look again, we have most of the elements in place to score goals and preven them, once we start creating chances the confidence will flow back and we will start picking up points.
But Mauricio Pellegrino has to be given the time that Pochettino was given, the leeway Koeman had in his second season when things weren't going to well and the support that Claude Puel never had, if we do that then the manager has a better chance of succeeding here than Puel had in the toxic atmosphere of last year.