As of halftime on Saturday Southampton had slipped back into the relegation zone and were in danger of entering a 3 week break on the wrong foot.
But, thanks to some halftime changes and an inspired performance, the Saints came roaring back and took all three points and enter the extended break feeling confident and ready to take on the final 8 matches of the season.
We have all seen the performance and have sang the praises for players like Ward-Prowse, Sims, and Bednarek but let us take a step back and see what this means in the bigger picture for Saints.
First and foremost, it means safety for now. As stated above, at halftime Cardiff were leading West Ham and with Tottenham up 1 on a Harry Kane goal the table showed the Saints back down in the bottom three. Obviously, we cannot know if they were aware of what was going on around the league at halftime but they knew at the very least they were facing an uphill battle to get points out of the match they were currently in.
If you had not watched the first half you would have seen the score line of 0-1 and have thought, “That’s not bad they’re still in this.” When in fact it felt like they were completely out of it. Spurs had dominated the first half and by all means should have had more than a goal at the break.
Coming out and attacking the game like they did and securing their first comeback victory since 2016 (and against Tottenham nonetheless) is such a change from the Saints we have seen under the past 3 managers. You have to feel that under any of the other three that game would have been over at half. The subs and the tactical changes would not have been made and they would have just shrugged their shoulders saying they lost to a team that they were supposed to lose to.
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But not Hasenhuttl, he decided to take a risk and that risked paid off magnificently. Moving forward with the rest of the season, there is no reason why the players and the staff should go into a match believing they shouldn’t win. Confidence, that is what is going to be the difference between the Saints staying up and going down.
Out of the 8 matches remaining only one is against a top six side and that is at home against Liverpool in early April. It is a bit optimistic to expect to get points from all 8 of those remaining matches but do not tell these players that.
I suspect we will see 3-4 more wins this season and a few more electrifying goals from Ward-Prowse in the process. When that final whistle is blown on May 12th and the season goes into the books I think we will see Southampton still in the Premier League and finish with 40-42 points and in 15th place