Southampton: Saints confirmed to be back playing in three weeks

Southampton will be back playing in three weeks after dates for the restart of the 2019/20 Premier League season were announced today.

The news – initially reported in an exclusive from the Telegraph – came with the confirmation that two top-flight games will be played on 17th June. Aston Villa and Sheffield United will face off in one meeting, whilst Manchester City will also host Arsenal.

A full round of fixtures will then follow between 19th-21st June, with matches staggered across the weekend.

It is unclear who Saints will be playing in their first game back, but their away fixture with Norwich was the first one to be postponed after the Coronavirus outbreak and would see them maintain their original fixture list.

Via Athletic reporter David Ornstein too, the three week agreement for preparation comes as a compromise between the league and clubs who wanted two and four weeks of contact training.

Stage two of training was announced on Wednesday by an official Premier League statement and increased the amount of contact that players can have with each other in their training schedules.

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Saints returned to their Staplewood base for socially distanced training nine days ago but now things have stepped up once again as clubs look towards finishing their campaigns.

Along with the Norwich game, Saints still have nine games to play in all.

Home meetings with Arsenal, Manchester City, Sheffield United and Brighton remain, whilst trips to Watford, Everton, Manchester United, Bournemouth and Norwich are also still to be played out.

What is definite is that all games will be behind closed doors to limit a further outbreak of the Coronavirus. It remains to be seen whether clubs will be using their own stadiums for games like in Germany or whether some neutral grounds will be allocated.

Whatever the case though, Saints will need a quick start and will need to pick up points to get towards the magic 40 mark.

They currently sit in 14th place on 34 points and have only won one of their last seven games in all competitions despite a huge upturn in form over the Christmas period.