Could Southampton beat Derby's record — or either of Sunderland's?
Yesterday at 01:00 AM
Southampton have picked up six points from a possible 45 so far, and are halfway to beating Derby County's record-low total — but they look hard-pressed to beat Sunderland's lowly tallies
Southampton are enduring an awful campaign back in the Premier League with just one win from 20 matches so far. 10 points adrift at the bottom, Russell Martin got the chop with the hopes of a new face being able to keep them up. However, if the 5-0 home loss to Brentford was anything to go by Ivan Juric has got his work cut out.
Each season, comments are aimed at the side bottom of the Premier League. 'Will they beat Derby's record?' is muttered, referring back to the worst points tally the Premier League has ever seen. The Rams picked up 11 points in 38 games and won one match all season (1-0 against Newcastle which is hilarious).
Losing 29 matches in a single season is impressive, and Southampton have lost 16 out of 20 this season. With 18 games remaining this number of defeats could easily be matched, and it once again goes to show the gulf between the Premier League and the Championship.
In seasons past it's felt that other teams might end up threatening the Derby points record, but none have fallen that low. Sheffield United gave it a good go last season, conceding over 100 goals on their way to just 16 points. This beat one of our two low records, and looking back it puts into context just how bad we were in 2002-03 and 2005-06.
Sunderland racked up just 34 points in these two campaigns, with the 15 points in 2005-06 looking likely to be a record no team would beat. This season we won just three games, losing 29 but conceding just 69 goals. I say just, but we didn't get hammered very often (unlike Sheffield United last season and Southampton this year).
We still lost 29 out of 38 games, which is of course dreadful. Looking back it felt as though we would be stuck with that record for a long time, but amazingly two years later we could pass that crown over to Derby. In our infamous season, Thierry Henry scored more than our entire squad, and he single-handedly took us to pieces at the Stadium of Light.
Just seven victories were achieved in these two campaigns which were full of embarrassing moments including four defeats to Newcastle and 134 goals conceded. We've looked back over the last 15 years and seen plenty of other sides struggle at the bottom of the Premier League and been thankful that it wasn't us, because it's been us on too many occasions.
That particular Sunderland squad had some grafters, but was woefully short of quality. Southampton this season have a limited amount of both. If they fail to surpass our 15 or 19 point campaigns, then they may not be far from becoming statistically the worst team in Premier League history.
If promotion is what is achieved this season, then we can all hope and pray that we head back to the Premier League better equipped than on our last few campaigns. We can also look to use the example of Sheffield United, Southampton, Norwich and others of how not to do it in the Premier League.
