Football
Southampton’s Premier League Hopes Still Alive, Says Ex-Saints Stig Johansen Amidst Tough Season
Former Saints striker Stig Johansen believes Southampton can avoid Premier League relegation despite a tough start to the season, backing manager Russell Martin to turn things around.
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Former Saints striker, Stig Johansen has backed Southampton to avoid relegation from the Premier League despite a dismal start to the season.
A tough start in the topflight
Seven defeats in eight games, including one last weekend has threatened to derail the ambitions of the St Mary's outfit who earned promotion to the Premier League last term, but Stig expects the modest Hampshire club to cope.
It seemed their fortunes was beginning to turn a corner last time out when two first half goals from Cameron Archer and Nigeria international Joe Aribo had them coasting versus Leicester City but for a flurry of three late second half goals from the opposition.
Big challenge but Russell Martin can turn the tide
Speaking exclusively to SportsBoom last weekend, the ex-Norway international believes Martin can help the club keep their topflight status.
"It's hard [the situation they're in] but when I visited there last month [September], I met the manager Martin and he was very positive," Stig told SportsBoom.com.
"They've gone up this year and it's hard to go up and try to make a big impact in the Premier League straight away."
"I think it's a big challenge now, to be honest, but I believe they have a lot of experience in there."
"I think they think of football in a good way. Their approach is one that I like, but it needs some results otherwise I think it's going to be hard for the manager to fix his job."
That said, Martin and Southampton will be kicking themselves for failing yet again on Saturday after throwing away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 at home.
"It's not just them anyway, if you look on the log, a number of teams in the league are struggling, so if they can keep believing, keep working hard, I think the results will come."
"The first weeks were tough, but I like to think that the games coming in after the national break will bring some good results. They will have some good chances to pick some important points, and I just think they'd take them."
However, the games keep coming thick and fast, and the fixture schedule do not seem to look kind anytime soon; Southampton's next eight games in the Premier League will see them face six teams currently in the top seven on the standings, a pointer to the very stern tests lying in wait for Martin and his charges.
Belief in the academy could pay off
Youngster Tyler Dibling have earned rave reviews for his performances since making the jump from the reserves to feature in the Premier League, and Stig believes such promotion is one that bodes well for the club.
"What I've seen from the inside is that they have a good methodology at the club, they have a good way of thinking about football, they have a reputation with bringing up young players, a good academy, so there's need to believe and stick to the manager, I think, and not change too quickly,” he concluded.
Since he broke loose from the shackles of long hours huddled up in a hot classroom learning Mandarin Chinese and Pinyin at the famous Confucius Institute, UNIZIK, Emmanuel Chinaza has embraced sports and football in particular, and it helped that he grew up in the football-crazy city of Anambra.