It has been a solid, if not spectacular, start to Southampton’s Premier League season under the leadership of Claude Puel.
It was another summer of player departures, with the likes of Sadio Mane, Victor Wanyama and Graziano Pelle leaving St Mary’s for pastures new, but the Frenchman added fresh faces in the form of Sofiane Boufal, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Nathan Redmond.
There have certainly been some highs – the 3-0 win away at West Ham springs to mind – as well as some lows – a draw at home to the current bottom-of-the-table side Sunderland, as well as a defeat at lowly Hull just before the international break.
They currently lie just inside the top half with 13 points from their opening 11 top flight matches, and face league leaders Liverpool at St Mary’s on Sunday, where they will welcome a number of their former stars back on the south coast.
Here are three surprising stats from Saints’ campaign so far…
Goals scored
Despite making a relatively positive start to the season, Southampton have only scored 12 goals in their opening 11 Premier League matches of the season.
This is the club’s fifth campaign since they returned to the top flight and it is their lowest tally at this stage, including their first year back under the guidance of Nigel Adkins when they netted 15 despite picking up just five points out of a possible 33.
Incredibly, it is 12 less than in 2014/15 – although they did beat Sunderland 8-0 in that run of fixtures.
Northam End blanks
Saints have scored six home league goals this season, and they have all been in the second half and at the same end of the pitch.
The club traditionally shoots towards the more lively Northam End in the first half, but they have failed to net in front of their more vocal supporters so far this term, which is something they will be looking to change when they host Liverpool at St Mary’s this weekend.
Dusan Tadic’s stats
Tadic is seen by many of the club’s supporters as their main creator and the Serbian – who has scored or assisted 10 of his national team’s last 11 goals – has certainly proved that again this term by conjuring up 31 chances in Southampton’s 11 Premier League matches so far.
However, for whatever reason, he is yet to pick up an assist, which highlights that the finishing of his Saints team-mates hasn’t been up to the required standard expected so far this season.