8 Big Threats To Southampton's Challenge For The Top 4

7. They Are No Longer A Surprise Package

Both of the last two seasons have seen Southampton with a new manager and shifting playing personnel, resulting in many writing them off. These low expectations have played into Saints' hands, with the team able to surprise opponents with their resilience and quality in possession. The only trouble is, you can't remain the surprise package forever. As many other overachievers have discovered before them, Southampton are beginning to find that opposition clubs are learning how they play and learning how to play them. Recent defeats to the likes of Crystal Palace and Swansea have seen these "lesser" clubs happy to let Saints dominate the possession, but shutting them down in the final third and restricting their scoring opportunities. Southampton may have the meanest defence in the league, but, by preventing them from scoring, opposition clubs are giving themselves a good chance to hit Saints on the break and nick a winner. Saints' lack of different options in the heart of the attack means that opposition clubs have managed to figure out and restrict the goals of their attacking strategy. On Sunday, Liverpool took the example of Swansea and Palace perfectly. Southampton dominated the play, had most of the possession and most of the attacking pressure. It was Liverpool who always looked more likely to score, though. For all that Saints can say they were hard done by with their many penalty appeals, their forwards simply didn't get goalscoring opportunities like Liverpool's did.