After all the wailing and wringing of hands after our poor start this season, after seven games it turns out we have now had an identical start to that of a year ago.
Last season, one that ended with our best league position in over 30 years, we started the season by winning 2 games, drawing 3 and losing 2 with a goal difference of plus 1, to give us a points total of 9 points from the opening 7 games and a league position of 10th.
Guess what ! a year on and Claude Puel has achieved exactly the same statistics as his predecessor Ronald Koeman did a year ago !
The only difference is that last term we scored 10 goals and let in 9 in that period and this season we have scored 7 and let in only 6, a defensive total that only Tottenham and Everton can better.
So those who predicted doom and gloom with Claude Puel have been proved wrong, obviously there is a long way to go, but after a slow start our new manager can be pleased about the way he has slowly but surely got his team playing his system and built a tight unit.
Those looking for positives, and here I am afraid to say that there are still far too many who are looking for negatives all of the time, will point to the fact that Koeman was in his second season in charge a year ago with mainly the same squad playing the same system and with plenty of time to prepare, whereas Claude Puel took over at Saints and had to work with a drastically reduced squad thanks to the European Championships delaying the arrival back of those players who had taken part.
That meant that he had little time to not only get to know the players and their capabilities, but coach them in his way of playing and their jobs.
That was major contributing factor to our slow start and it cannot be denied that as much as the players had to have time to adapt, so did the manager and he has done that with every game.
But there are always those looking for negatives and the biggest complaints seem to be our lack of goals, before the trip to Leicester those doing so had failed to notice that in the opening 7 games we had scored exactly the same number of goals this season as last, that last season we failed to score in 3 of our opening 6 games and that those they are putting up now as having not been replaced ie Mane & Pelle were being slagged off for their lack of goals. They forget a year ago we couldnt score against the likes of Watford, West Brom & Everton.
The 7th game last season saw us beat Swansea 3-1, it took a Virgil Van Dijk effort and an own goal before Sadio Mane finally got his first League goal of the season at the 7th time of asking.
So we go into the International break looking a well drilled outfit and looking strong, those that say we lack goals need to look beyond the headlines, Charlie Austin is up and running in all competitions, Shane Long will find his form and we still have Jay Rodriguez and Sofiane Boufal to come back from injury, this time last year we were truly worried about where the goals would come from as we had nothing else to come in, this time we have options.
Nathan Redmond is becoming the whipping boy and it is wrong to lay all the blame on him, yes he has missed chances, but he has also created many as well and he has exactly the same number of goals as Sadio Mane did this time last year.
Perhaps his conversion to a forward won't be a success, but if it isn't he is still a very good wide player and we have Boufal and Rodriguez who could fill that gap, in the case of Jay Rod that is a case in point of how the manager is learning and having to get to know the capabilities of the squad, initially it was thought that the player would go on loan for the season and hence Redmond would be converted to a striker, now perhaps the plans will change a little once Jay Rod and indeed Boufal are fit and ready to go.
So there is no reason why some sections of our support should be moaning and groaning about failing to score at Leicester, yes perhaps they are not the side they were last year, but they are still a solid unit and have not lost at home so far this season, Arsenal got exactly the same result as us at the King Power.
Some have not learn't the lessons of the past two seasons where they spent the first two months of the season in meltdown and predicting doom and gloom, only to find themselves having to eat their words, yet off they go again this season and Claude Puel was condemned with barely a ball kicked.
Now Puel has earned the right to be given the time to show he is up to the task, the early indications suggest he is, he is tactically aware, he is not afraid to use his squad to it's full extent, he learns from his lessons, he is not afraid to make changes when he gets it wrong and he seems completely focused on the job.
What more could we want from a manager and now he has shown he can match his predecessor game for game it can only bode well.
So the comparison of the first 7 games of these two seasons only brings out the positives, there are no negatives or at least not any that weren't there last season and the biggest positives have to be that we have players coming back from injury, we have a new signing we have not seen yet and perhaps most satisfying is that certain players have stepped out of the shadows and showed their worth, yesterday Oriol Romeo showed he can fill Wanyama's boots and the likes of Jake Hesketh & Matt Targett have shown they have progressed, not to mention the possibilities of the likes of Olufela Olomola who might just explode into the equation.
There is not a lot to find negative about the Southampton Football Club at the moment so we should be looking to create a positive atmosphere not get on the backs of the manager and certain players everytime something goes sightly wrong.