Southampton

Millie Sian
BBC Sport researcher

Southampton boss Russell Martin has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game at Manchester City (kick-off 15:00 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Will Smallbone will be out "for a little bit of time" with an injury. He described it as "really frustrating and disappointing" for the player and for the club.

• Meanwhile, Yukinari Sugawara has been "managed" in training this week, after coming off with an injury against Leicester City. The right-back will continue to be monitored for the next 24 hours to determine whether he will be available to start on Saturday.

• He is pleased with the reaction his players have shown after throwing away a two-goal lead against Leicester last weekend: "I have really liked how they have trained this week. They are such a good group, culturally, in the way they train and the intensity they train with. I think the reaction has been good - now they have to put it on the pitch."

• His relationship with the club's hierarchy is still "really good", even after a difficult start to managing in the Premier League: "Perception and reality are often very far apart in football. A lot of people made up that it was 'do or die' against Leicester City and that I would be sacked if we lost, but I'm still here. I feel nothing but support from them right now."

• On the "challenge" of taking on the current Premier League champions away from home: "You have to accept they are a brilliant team, with a brilliant manager and players. The challenge is so exciting for us - this is what we all worked so hard for last season. I think the challenge is to go there and see how brave we can be. We want to try to have enough moments ourselves to be able to come away and know that we have given it everything that we have got."

• The gameplan is to "try to win" rather than "try to avoid too much damage". He added: "I think you have to do that. Otherwise, what is the point?"

• Mentality is one of the key things Martin has been working on with the squad this week: "You can approach this game in many different ways. You can go to the Etihad, defend for 90 minutes and nick something - or you can go there, express yourselves, play with courage and try to have moments yourselves. I hope we have given them enough courage to do that."

• He added: "We aren't going to be defined by Manchester City away, but we need to be picking up points against the teams we will be really competing with. We have been so close - it has been frustrating."

• On Adam Lallana's role within his squad this season: "Adam is really involved in the process. We have a lot of honest chats and he understands he was brought in to help on and off the pitch. At 36 years old, we cannot expect him to help in every single game. He will definitely help us at some point."

Follow all of Thursday's Premier League news conferences and the latest football news here

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BBC Solent's Adam Blackmore says it is "not the end of the world" if Southampton get immediately relegated back to the Championship.

Manager Russell Martin is coming under increasing pressure after a demoralising late comeback defeat at home to Leicester on Saturday left Saints with one point from their opening eight games.

"Let me play devil's advocate," Blackmore told the Saints And Sinners podcast.

"One - I wonder can the club afford to sack him and all his staff. It's an expensive business.

"Two - can they get a replacement they really want who can keep them up?

"Three - do they think they are going to struggle to stay up whoever is managing because of the players they have bought and the squad they have got? In which case they may as well leave Russell Martin in place anyway.

"Or Dragan Solak might be going: 'This is ridiculous. I'm going to need to fork out a whole lot more money here and I don't want to.'

"There are a growing number of Saints fans who already, like me, are missing the Championship.

"I get slaughtered for being too nice and too optimistic. If they stay up, brilliant, because I think then they can build. If they go down I don't think it's the end of the world because the ownership is at least solid, they already trimmed the staff and made people redundant the first time they went down so there is not much to change, the costs are less and they built in contracts with relegation clauses.

"I don't think the fallout would be what it was last time because I think they have their ship in order in regards to that in the future. I think a lot of the players would stay."

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

A new episode of Saints and Sinners is now available to listen to and download on BBC Sounds.

BBC Radio Solent's Jono Holmes sits in for Tom Deacon and is joined by British and Commonwealth Light Heavyweight champion Lewie 'The Saint' Edmondson to chat about his new title and his love for Southampton.

Plus, Adam Blackmore returns to discuss Russell Martin's future after a dispiriting late comeback defeat at home to Leicester.

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

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Crystal Palace's 1-0 loss at Nottingham Forest on Monday meant that for the first time in the English top-flight's 126-year history, four clubs have failed to win any of their first eight matches of a league season.

Palace, Ipswich, Southampton and Wolves are all yet to be victorious in the Premier League this campaign.

According to Opta,, external 10 clubs in the Premier League era (since 1992-93) have failed to win any of their first eight games and yet have gone on to avoid relegation.

The most recent of those came last season when Bournemouth, who did not win until their 10th league fixture of 2023-24, recovered to finish 12th.

Before Saints and Wolves did so this season, there had only been six occasions when a team had taken one point or fewer from their opening eight matches of a Premier League season.

Two of those sides ended up surviving - Southampton in 1998-99 and Sunderland in 2013-14.

Football is full of highs.

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And lows.

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Controversy takes hold.

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Moments of madness do too.

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Players become unexpected heroes.

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Some never change.

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There's pain.

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Joy too.

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And, given this ebb and flow of emotion, every so often, even the coolest heads boil over.

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