Southampton have ventured into uncharted territory in the opening months of this campaign. They have been mixing the start of their Premier League games with Europa League qualifiers.
The Europa League is a competition that a few teams feel does more harm than good for a team. Trying to balance playing Thursday night in the Europa League and Sunday in the Premier League can be stressful and take it’s toll on players.
This has proven to be the case already for Southampton. They are without a win in the opening three Premier League fixtures, drawing with Newcastle and Watford, with a loss to Everton in between them.
Playing in Europe on a Thursday and only having two days rest can start to take a toll on players and Southampton’s players have shown that in the Premier League with some lacklustre performances in the early stages of the campaign.
Southampton had a fantastic campaign last season and finished an impressive 7th in the League. A league finish that well warranted their fine performances throughout the season. Arsenal’s FA Cup win versus Aston Villa allowed Southampton to enter the Europa League, with Arsenal already having booked a Champions League place through their league finish.
This entered Southampton into the Europa League qualifiers, of which Saints are currently still competing. They brushed past Vitesse Arnhem in the last qualifying round and are currently drawing 1-1 on aggregate with Danish outfit FC Midtjylland coming into the second leg this coming Thursday.
Southampton’s efforts in Europe have been fairly impressive so far and with the amount of injuries to key first team players they have- their Premier League campaign is faltering. The losses of Nathaniel Clyne to Liverpool and Morgan Schneiderlin to Manchester United have proved big and added injuries to Ryan Bertrand; Jordy Clasie; Florin Gardos and Fraser Forster have left the squad light. This leads to players becoming burned out, playing two games in four days.
If you asked every Southampton fan if they want to be in the Europa League. Most would say yes. However, as much as it is a fantastic opportunity for the club/players and fans. It is affecting their Premier League form for the worst.
They face FC Midtjylland this coming Thursday to determine whether they are in the draw for the group stages before the Saints face newly promoted Norwich City on Sunday. Norwich come into the game on fairly high spirits after two fine performances in their last two games and will be well aggrieved they did not get more from their tie versus Stoke on Saturday. It will be a good game for both sides to pick up points with Southampton looking for their first win of the season and Norwich currently unbeaten under Alex Neil away from home since he joined Norwich in January.
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