22-year-old star aiming to continue goalscoring form amidst inconsistent performances

One of the biggest patterns of Southampton's 2024/25 Premier League season has been their inconsistency. The Saints started their season with three underwhelming performances, where they could have avoided defeats in all of those matches by being more calm and composed while going forward.

In the next match, Southampton gave their best first half performance this season in terms of creating more goalscoring chances, but still couldn't find the back of the net against Erik Ten Hag's Manchester United. The following home match against Ipswich Town was a similar match as well, with a lack of quality finishing led Russell Martin's side to settle for a 1-1 draw, while conceding a last-minute equaliser.

Although there were some positives from those two encouraging performances, Southampton couldn't manage to go one better to secure a win against Bournemouth. Russell Martin's side conceded three early goals in the first half and followed this game with conceding three second half goals in the next match, to face two consecutive 3-1 defeats. Hence, Southampton know that inconsistency is one of their biggest shortcomings this season, and the Saints must find a winning momentum in order to avoid getting relegated again after two seasons.

22-year-old star aiming to continue goalscoring form amidst inconsistent performances

While most of the first-team players are yet to find their best form this season, one promising star is gradually working on showcasing his huge potential at the St. Mary's Stadium. The talented player is 22-year-old centre forward Cameron Archer, who kept his finishing struggles aside and scored a world-class goal in the previous Premier League fixture against Mikel Arteta's Arsenal.

Archer made his first Premier League start for Southampton against Manchester United, but he missed an important penalty in that match to give the lead to Southampton. Archer's lacklustre performances in front of goal continued against Ipswich Town, and the former Aston Villa prodigy wasn't even started against Bournemouth and Arsenal.

However, Archer took that missed penalty as a massive learning and improved his calm and composure inside the final third, which was evident with his bottom-corner finish against Arsenal.
Before the Leicester City match, Archer reflected on his previous goalscoring struggles and suggested that the Saints are aiming to improve from their mistakes in order to take more points, saying,

""The only thing we can do is come into training, get our head down and work on ourselves. We put too much pressure on ourselves against Bournemouth.

If we can take away these mistakes, which we need to do, and play with more courage we will pick up more points.""

- Cameron Archer

Without a doubt, Archer's improved finishing is a great inspiration for the Saints, which signifies them to keep believing in themselves. Recently, manager Russell Martin also talked about the uplifted confidence among Southampton players, and that they need to give their level best performance to secure their first three points in the league season.

Hence, the Southampton fans are excited about the remainder of the Premier League season and it remains to be seen whether Southampton manage to take a home win against Leicester City at the St. Mary's Stadium.