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Saints' struggles continuepublished at 22:36 25 February
22:36 25 February
Joe Rindl BBC Sport journalist
Image source, Getty Images
No team has ever reached this stage of a Premier League season with fewer points than Southampton's nine.
The south coast club are still one win or three draws away from overtaking Derby County's lowest Premier League points total record of 11 set in 2007-08.
They never looked like getting a result in their 4-0 loss against Chelsea, creating no big chances outside of a powerful Paul Onuachu first-half header which was well-saved by a diving Filip Jorgensen when the score was goalless.
Southampton, who trailed 3-0 at the break, were booed at half-time by some of their own supporters.
The team has lost nine of their 10 Premier League matches since Croatian manager Ivan Juric replaced Russell Martin - and that one result was a win against 18th-place Ipswich Town who are also struggling in a relegation battle.
'If only the rest had Ramsdale's fight'published at 12:23 25 February
12:23 25 February
Ray Hunt Fan writer
Image source, Getty Images
Another week goes by, and another embarrassing defeat to report. This time, an even heavier thumping. A 4-0 home loss to Brighton & Hove Albion.
That now makes eight consecutive home defeats. Only the fourth Premier League team in history with that unwanted feat.
We are continuing to leak goals at an alarming rate. In six of those eight losses, we have conceded at least three goals - making it a grand total now of 14 times we have let in three or more in a game.
It is going from bad to worse and it appears lessons are not being learned. There is no sign of fight, and not a clue at any identity we are trying to achieve.#
And yet, despite the misery, there is still one playing who is going above and beyond right now: Aaron Ramsdale. By far the best thing to come from this season.
It seems absurd that the goalkeeper is still your best-performing player in a match in which you concede four times. That's just how bad things are right now.
During the Brighton defeat, Ramsdale made eight brilliant saves. Without his heroics this game could have easily been eight or nine.
In last week's encounter with Bournemouth, he once again stood out as the best of a bad bunch, stopping four of the seven shots faced - even one from his own defence.
As a team, we are letting him down. If only the rest of the team had his fight.
He deserves much better than us and he will have his pick of Premier League teams next season.
Sutton's predictions: Chelsea v Southamptonpublished at 08:51 25 February
08:51 25 February
Chelsea have looked very flat in recent weeks and ended up being beaten by Aston Villa on Saturday after taking the lead.
Enzo Maresca's side are desperate to get back to winning ways so this is the perfect game for them - you could not ask for more of an open goal at the moment than playing Southampton at home.
Saints will give Chelsea the chance to find their rhythm again and I don't see them keeping them out.
I must say every week how dismal this season has been for Southampton fans, and probably the only thing they have to look forward to at the moment is the prospect of a day out in Norwich next season when they are back in the Championship.
Chelsea v Southampton: Did you know?published at 08:10 25 February
08:10 25 February
Image source, Getty Images
Chelsea have lost two of their past three Premier League games against Southampton, as many defeats as in their previous 18 against them (W11 D5).
Juric on Downes' return, 'incredible' Chelsea and a 'structural problem'published at 15:14 24 February
15:14 24 February
Millie Sian BBC Sport journalist
Southampton boss Ivan Juric has been speaking to the media before Tuesday's Premier League game at Chelsea (kick-off 20:15 GMT).
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
His squad will be largely unchanged, with nobody returning from injury. He confirmed Jan Bednarek will not be in contention after picking up a knock last time out: "It is nothing serious, but he will not play in this game. The scan didn't show anything - it is just fatigue."
Flynn Downes "will play" after the pair managed to resolve their differences. The defensive midfielder will step in for Lesley Ugochukwu, who is unable to feature against his parent club.
He added: "Flynn needs to do his job. I think everyone makes mistakes. I make mistakes and he makes mistakes. There is no problem. He knows I appreciate him as a player."
After calling the Brighton performance a "disaster", he said "I don't know if I want to do anything differently" against Chelsea, adding: "You cannot change your way every time. I want to press, steal the ball high and play forward. I want us to try to be aggressive, but it has to be our style."
On facing Enzo Maresca's side: "They lost their last game but there is a huge difference between us. They are an incredible team with incredible players. They have had two bad results but they are great, so we have to play well."
He added: "It's not easy at the moment. It is much easier for them than it is for us because they have 20 great players. So if they are missing one player, they can just replace them - so it's a completely different situation to us."
He admitted January signing Welington is still "acclimatising" to Premier League football after joining from Sao Paulo. He added: "I was a player, so I understand confidence and everything. When you come from another country, you haven't played here and you start to play immediately, then you have to acclimatise to this kind of football. It is much faster than in Brazil."
When asked about Simon Rusk joining his first-team coaching staff on a permanent basis, he said: "He was with me from the beginning. From my first training session, he was always with me - so nothing has changed."
With just three months left of the 2024-25 season, he spoke about his realistic ambitions: "We have to create something good for the future. Now is the moment to work hard, understand what we were missing and why the past few years in the Premier League were such a disaster. Now is the time to understand the problem and create a mentality that we can use in the long term."
He speaks to new sporting director Johannes Spors "every day" and they are working together to rectify the "structural problem" at the club. He added: "Now is the moment - not later - to understand how to become a respectable Premier League team again."
Rusk joins first-team coaching staff on full-time basispublished at 11:26 24 February
11:26 24 February
Image source, Getty Images
Simon Rusk has joined Ivan Juric's first-team coaching staff at Southampton on a full-time basis, with Calum McFarlane taking Rusk's role in charge of the club's under-21 side.
Rusk had a short spell in interim charge of the first team following the departure of previous boss Russell Martin in December.
McFarlane had previously been head coach of Saints' under-18 team.
Southampton 0-4 Brighton - the fans' verdictpublished at 09:18 24 February
Maggie: It was woeful. Players seemed unsure of what their job was; floundering around sticking the odd leg in for a challenge and worst of all, not looking like they want to be there. I really hope that the management are addressing what must be a huge physiological burden/barrier for these guys who run onto the field every week knowing they have been written off before they even start. Start planning for the long term in the Championship now and get a quality manager in urgently. We cannot keep paying for watching dropped shoulders.
Sammy: Absolutely abysmal. The owners need to be held accountable for some major lacklustre decisions as we are a joke. Teams can turn up and look forward to a guaranteed three points away from home. Cameron Archer one of the worst forward players I have seen. 3-0 down and we put Will Smallbone on sums Southampton up!!!. Get us back to the Championship.
Ryan: Far, far too easy for Brighton to play against us. Defensively shocking and no attacking impetus either. Starting to sound like a broken record but it's just not good enough and I can't see us bouncing back up next year either. Need a complete reset next year -manager, players and coaches - to clear the deadwood and rot hanging over the club.
James: It's just become a complete embarrassment now. No desire or passion to win. What difference has the new manager made?
Brighton fans
Steve; Dominant, aggressive, incisive, against, let's face it, a poor opponent. Still, three points against a lower-ranked team is a pleasant turnaround. Confidence abounds, so keep the foot on the pedal and perhaps we can secure another European challenge.
Anton: The naysayers who asked "is it time to change the manager?" will be eating their words. Let's face it - we were more or less a new team a short while ago with a new manager. This will need time to settle, time for the team to understand each other's individual nuances, and the manager to play to those strengths. It's looking a little more sixth sense on the pitch now - and this was a great result. Perhaps give this team the benefit of longevity to become more settled and robust.
Mike; A confident and controlled performance that should have resulted in more than a four-goal return. It was like a knife through butter, or the soft central belly of the Southampton team on numerous occasions. Yankuba Minteh probably should have scored a hat-trick and left the pitch with the match ball. Consistency is the key now, ahead of a much stronger south-coast challenge on Tuesday night at Bournemouth.
Paul: Superb win, and the past three games have been a joy to watch. We fear no-one on this form. Eighth position is good, but we can do better. We are in control of our own destiny, and have the players to take us to the top. Happy days!
'We don't have much confidence' - Fernandespublished at 07:53 24 February
07:53 24 February
Image source, Getty Images
Southampton's Mateus Fernandes says the team must "fight more" after another heavy defeat on Saturday - this time a 4-0 home loss to Brighton.
Saints have now lost five matches by a three or more goals in the Premier League this season, only losing more in 1998-99 (nine), 2020-21 (six) and 2021-22 (six).
"It's a sad moment for us as a club," Fernandes told BBC Radio Solent's Adam Blackmore.
"We need to do the easy things not the hard things. We need to get more confidence and try to do better.
"When we did make mistakes they scored - one mistake, one goal. It's sad, it's a tough moment for us. We don't have much confidence.
"Confidence is very important in football. We need to do our best, fight more, rest well, eat well and prepare for the next game."
It is a quick turnaround for Ivan Juric's side, who travel to London to face a Chelsea side - who are themselves enduring a difficult run - on Tuesday.
"It's a big game for us. We are not happy - it's too many games we are losing," Fernandes added.
Woe again for struggling Saintspublished at 19:14 22 February
19:14 22 February
Tim Oscroft BBC Sport journalist
Image source, Reuters
It is hard to see any way that Southampton can clamber to safety on the evidence of their 4-0 loss at home to Brighton, despite having 36 points to play for.
Lesley Ugochukwu's booking for a reckless challenge on Joao Pedro just under two minutes into the game set the tone, and Southampton captain Jan Bednarek did not make it beyond 12 minutes when he was forced off with an injury.
The home side did not have any touches of the ball in Brighton's penalty area in the first half, and only managed five after the break.
Kamaldeen Sulemana's shot after 69 minutes was their only attempt on target in the match, and the way Georginio Rutter and Kaoru Mitoma sliced through the defence to extend Brighton's lead epitomised the woes at St Mary's.
They have conceded three or more goals in home Premier League games on nine occasions this season, and visits to Chelsea and Liverpool loom in their next two outings.
The margin of defeat would have been even wider for Southampton had Ramsdale not denied Carlos Baleba and Yankuba Minteh with some last-ditch saves in the closing minutes as Saints threatened to fall apart completely.
'A disaster'published at 18:46 22 February
18:46 22 February
Image source, Getty Images
Southampton manager Ivan Juric, speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "It was just a huge difference, there is nothing more to say, really from the beginning to the end there was an incredible difference between two teams. It was an awful game, a disaster and we played really bad."
On going man-for-man: "We wanted to play like this, it was not good today, I think the players wanted to do it but individually they were much better than us.
"Everything disappointed me today because we were no good before, later I think for me, my staff, the players it is a really bad moment and we did a really bad game."
Southampton 0-4 Brighton: Key statpublished at 17:47 22 February
17:47 22 February
Image source, Getty Images
Southampton have picked up just four points from their 13 home matches in the Premier League this season (P13 W1 D1 L11).
Only one team in top-flight history has picked up fewer points at home at this stage of the season – Sunderland in 2006/07 (3 points – P13 W0 D3 L10).
Southampton 0-4 Brighton - send us your thoughtspublished at 17:00 22 February
Come back to this page on Monday to find a selection of your replies
Sutton's predictions: Southampton v Brightonpublished at 11:24 22 February
11:24 22 February
There does not seem much point talking about Southampton.
I must say it every week but I could not think of anything worse than being a Saints fan at the moment, and I really feel for them.
It is just sheer loyalty that is making them turn up for matches at the moment because they only get more misery when they do.
Brighton have been quite inconsistent this season - well, until their back-to-back wins over Chelsea last week anyway - and that has made them a tricky team to predict.
It is not hard to call this game, though - the Seagulls are going to win and all I have to decide is by how many.
The problem with playing a prediction game is that my guest and the BBC readers are clearly going to go with a Southampton defeat too. I don't think anyone out there will go with a Saints win, will they?
🎧 Saints and Sinnerspublished at 18:38 20 February
18:38 20 February
The latest episode of BBC Radio Solent's Saints and Sinners is available now on BBC Sounds.
Tom Deacon chats with BBC Radio Solent sports editor Adam Blackmore about the latest news from St Mary's.
The team are also joined by former Saints goalkeeper and 1976 FA Cup winner Ian Turner, as well as Brighton fan Stephen Grant to look ahead to the game against the Seagulls this weekend.
Has 'short-term fix failed'? Was removing Martin 'a mistake'?published at 16:48 20 February
16:48 20 February
Image source, Getty Images
We asked for your views on the things going on at Southampton that are being overlooked.
Here are some of your comments:
Dave: Watching Bournemouth and Brighton, who have both turned their clubs into very credible Premier League teams, why can't the Saints learn from them and get our club back on track?
Ray: What I'm surprised at is why no one is talking about the fact that Ivan Juric has a worse record than Nathan Jones. Jones was hounded out of the club and Juric seems to be getting a free pass. Juric's football is terrible to watch. If he's the manager next season, I won't be renewing my season ticket.
Matthew: Removing Russell Martin was a mistake. Many of the players loved him, his man-management, and they worked hard for him. His style needed tweaking, it was a pity he was too stubborn to change just a little bit, but we won't find another manager who creates as positive an atmosphere around the club as he did or plays as attractive football as he did. The results were poor, but we're quickly becoming a poisoned chalice for managers. Perhaps we should have kept him at the helm despite the inevitability of relegation and maintained the long-term vision, because the short-term attempt at fixing it has failed.
Mike: It's likely that most of our better players will leave. I'm including Dibling, Fernandes, Walker-Peters, Ramsdale and Sulemana on that list. But if Saints are going to bounce back and become an established Premier League team again, we need to keep these players and add quality elsewhere. Which means getting rid of Bednarek, Stephens, Manning, Bree, Downes, Aribo, Armstrong. These are the players that have failed us. But I suspect they will linger. I'm not sure they can be relied on to get us out of the Championship again. But if they do manage it, we are just destined to repeat this horrible season again.
Image source, Getty Images
