4 EPL teams who could face a relegation battle in 2018/19

#3: Southampton

Mark Hughes kept Southampton up by the skin of their teeth in 2017/18

Southampton are a strange case in that judging by their squad – which contains massively talented players such as Ryan Bertrand, James Ward-Prowse and Nathan Redmond – they should never have been in trouble last season at all. And yet they struggled throughout 2017/18 and only finished 17th, staying up by the skin of their teeth despite Mark Hughes supposedly being brought in to right the ship in March.

Perhaps the craziest part? Hughes took charge of 8 games and managed to gain 8 points, winning just 2 games – but he also lost 4, half of the matches he saw over. Sacked boss Mauricio Pellegrino had already overseen 30 matches – but lost just 12 of them, statistically a better record than Hughes’s.

And the opening two games of 2018/19 don’t appear to be boding well for the Saints. They drew 0-0 with Burnley on the opening day but were largely dominated in that game, and their 2-1 loss to Everton showed their issues again – they had less possession, and despite having 15 shots, only managed 4 on target. That final statistic sums up Southampton’s major issue – a lack of goals.

They only managed 37 all season in 2017/18 and for the most part all four of their strikers – Shane Long, Guido Carrillo, Charlie Austin and Manolo Gabbiadini were all somewhat disappointing. Hughes has now added Danny Ings from Liverpool to help in this area, but although he’s already scored his first Southampton goal, it’s hard to rely on a player who’s only seen a handful of games since 2014/15. Overall, it’s hard to see Southampton not being sucked into another relegation battle.