Southampton have become the first team since the Premier League began to be relegated with seven matches remaining, surpassing even the 2007-08 Derby County team that took the fight into Gameweek 32.
It raises the question: even if they manage to surpass that Derby side’s record-low points total of 11, is this the worst Premier League side in history?
Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur confirmed Southampton will drop to the Championship following 17th-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers’ 2-1 win at Ipswich Town on Saturday, with the results leaving Ivan Juric’s side an unassailable 22 points adrift of safety.
Here, we look at some of the numbers behind their disastrous season.
Neither Russell Martin, the head coach who was sacked in December, nor his replacement, Juric, have managed to get a tune out of a side that never looked like it would retain their top-flight status, which was earned last season after beating Leeds United in the Championship play-off final.
This Southampton side have a strong case for being the worst-ever in Premier League history (and this on the back of being the only club to have lost 9-0 on two occasions in the Premier League — against Leicester City in 2019 and to Manchester United in 2021).
They remain on 10 points, with their only motivation for the remainder of the season being to surpass Derby’s 2007-08 points tally of 11, still the worst in Premier League history.
Should Southampton fail to win another game, they will also have the second-worst win record in a top-flight season behind that Derby team.
The Southampton board trusted Martin’s possession-focused style after it worked wonders in the Championship, but the illusion broke quickly.
Across his 16 Premier League matches in charge, Southampton made 16 errors leading to a shot and a further 11 leading to a goal. Martin’s inability to make the right tweaks within his preferred style or ditch it entirely for more pragmatic football cost him his job.
Juric’s arrival has not changed much, with his 13 matches bringing 12 errors leading to shots and a further eight leading to goals.
A good few of these errors have been in their own defensive third, as the graph below shows.
It is a surprise that Southampton are not closer to beating 2023-24 Sheffield United’s woeful record of 104 goals conceded, the most by a team in a 38-game Premier League season. Sheffield United were relegated but only made 18 errors leading to a shot or goal that season. Additionally, Southampton have conceded 20 or more shots on 12 occasions, only three short of Sheffield United’s record last season.
Comparing Southampton’s numbers with those of some of the worst teams of the Premier League era also suggests their remaining seven matches could see them take over the crown of worst team ever from the 2007-08 Derby or 2023-24 Sheffield United.
The visit to Tottenham continued a trend that Southampton fans have become all too familiar with.
Juric’s team lacked threat in the final third and could have been 3-0 down by half-time if not for the VAR ruling out Lucas Bergvall’s finish from a set piece. They twice failed to track far-post runs for Brennan Johnson’s two goals. The second half brought improvements but that was largely due to Spurs deciding to sit back given their position in the game. A late consolation from Mateus Fernandes — one of the only shining lights — seemed a fitting way for Southampton to bow out of the top flight but they compounded their woes by conceding a late penalty, which Mathys Tel scored.
The scoreline dropped Southampton’s goal difference to -51, matching 2007-08 Derby’s record after 31 matches, one better than 2023-24 Sheffield United and three clear of the all-time worst record in the English top flight of -54 managed by Manchester United in 1930-31.
April 6 is the fourth-earliest a team has been relegated from the Premier League, with Southampton matching 2001-02 Leicester City.
Only 2007-08 Derby (March 29), 2018-19 Huddersfield (March 30) and 2018-19 Fulham (April 2) have done worse.
Southampton have also taken just one point after going behind (a 1-1 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion in November). The 2007-08 Derby team won three points after falling behind, while 2023-24 Sheffield won four.
As the table below shows, they will not finish top of that list thanks to Norwich City’s 2019-20 team, who fell behind in 27 games without recovering a single point.
TeamSeasonGames Fallen Behind inWinsDrawsLossesPoints
Southampton are also just the third team to lose as many as 25 of their first 31 games of a top-flight campaign, after Sunderland in 2005-06 and Sheffield United in 2020-21 (both also 25).
In the final 10 minutes of their match at Tottenham on Sunday, Southampton fans sang, “Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be, we’re going to Coventry,” as they looked forward to the prospect of a return to the second tier (though with Coventry pushing for a play-off spot in the Championship, they are not certain of getting that away trip next season).
That sense of resignation has engulfed the club since August.
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(Top photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
