Manchester City 6-1 Southampton: Three match takeaways – 04/11/18

Time to say goodbye?

It feels like this kind of talking point is creeping it’s way into just about every pre and post-match analysis we run nowadays, but there’s no denying that what we’ve just seen was the worse Southampton had played this season.

Granted, the Saints managed four shots on target and granted it was against Man City, but there’s a real feeling in the air that that performance for Hughes may be a parallel to Pellegrino’s 3-0 loss to Newcastle.

Aside from a couple of half-chances the Saints were massively below par and at times the champions were simply toying with what’s clearly an unorganized and mentally fragile back-line. On paper, Southampton have a side that should be competing for the top half – that isn’t biased or overly optimistic, that’s a cold, hard fact.

Sadly, it doesn’t appear that Hughes is the man to do so after this dismal start, and the board need to be more proactive this time around after leaving Pellegrino’s sacking until Spring. There are still some very winnable fixtures between now and new year and the club really need to consider whether Hughes will be able to lead his team to all three points in those must-win matches.