Over the past few weeks there has been a media frenzy about Southampton Football Club, we have become the flavour of the month, but now we need to show that all the hype is justified.
Recently Southampton Football Club has been held up as a shining beacon in the Premier League, a club that has built its success on youth and English talent at that, the media always looks for a cause and Saints have become it, not only becoming the rising stars of the Premier league, but being hailed as the saviour of the England football team.
However two straight defeats has raised questions and now Saints stand at their first crossroads of the season and could find that the media which was so quick to praise them will very quickly sing a different song if we plummet down the league.
In just over a week we lost two games, twice as many as we had lost in the previous three months, in some respects these were games that most teams would lose, away to Arsenal & Chelsea are difficult tasks for any club let alone Saints, but those defeats come at the start of a period when four of our next six games are against clubs either above us or within a point.
There are those who will claim that we have had a kind start to the season, in comparison to last years spell from hell early on, they do have a point, whilst i will always say that you can only play what is put in front of you, the fact is in any football league, be it the Premier or otherwise, there will always be that element of luck of when you play a side, indeed last season the clubs who faced us early in the campaign could rub their hands with glee, whereas by this time last year we had started to become a different proposition.
I would say in our defence though that we rather squandered our opportunity to get some points on the board against some poorer teams, indeed after four games it looked like it may well be a season struggle, only two goals scored, both last minute and with nine points up for grabs against Sunderland, Norwich & West Ham, all teams that have struggled, we took a measly two.
But in fairness after that we found a groove and locked ourself into it, perhaps too much as we relied too heavily on keeping a clean sheet and not enough on scoring goals.
Our pressing game has been much heralded, but in recent weeks it seems teams have wised up to it a little, both Chelsea and Arsenal playing us at our own game and winning both literally and otherwise, it could be said they have the personel to do that, but Stoke dont and they held us.
Now we face a mini crisis and we have to show we have the backbone to pull through it, this is where managers earn their corn, the old adage is that its a squad game, we haven't really adapted to that rule, our team has picked itself with one or two exceptions and now with injuries coming up and congestion in the fixture list, Mauricio Pochettino has to show that he is tactically aware and can change things when needed.
There has been a complacency amongst Saints fans of late, the feeling that we have a magic formula and as long as we keep repeating it we cant be beaten, perhaps that complacency has crept into the team as well, certainly we have been more error prone in recent weeks, each of our last four games has seen soft goals conceded and that has to stop.
Going into the game at the Emirates, over the past six games we were top of the form table, now just two games later we sit eighth, the warning signs are there we need to heed them.
In some respects this has the potential to mirror the second half of last season, in Pochettino's first ten games we took 15 points at an average of 1.5 per game, this season we have averaged 1.7 per game, however in the following six games last term we only took 4 points as we found we could not keep up our new style of play.
That was the beginnings of the pressing game and this season we have re tuned it and turned it to our advantage, however the issue is can we keep it up over sustained periods and can those players who have not had much of a kick this season step up to the plate, in truth we have not used the squad half as much as we should have done.
Now we need to show the rest of the League that we are not a flash in the pan and that we can beat those sides that are above us and that we are not just fast track bullies, beating Aston Villa will be a start, but the real test will come in the three games after that Man City at home, Newcastle away and then Spurs at St Mary's, in those three fixtures last season we got three points, we will do very well to match that total this season, if we do then we will have keep ourselves up with that top six pack as long as we beat Villa, it doesnt sound much but six points from our next four games will be a good total and that will be a big step in showing everyone that we are not just a flash in the pan