Premier League 2013-14: Season Predictions

Southampton

The presence of the Saints to be featured in this article as a Premier League team, may have come as a surprise to a selection of fans in the immediate aftermath of January 18th 2013. As this was the day when the extremely successful manager Nigel Adkins, who mastered back to back promotions, was ousted by chairman Nicola Cortese in favour of Mauricio Pochettino, a man relatively unknown in managerial circles. At that time, the Saints were 15th in the table and fans had enormous reservations over this move and feared a swift return to the Championship would be imminent. Instead, Pochettino guided them to a relatively comfortable 14th, barely flirting with relegation, thanks to displays against Manchester City and Liverpool where they recorded comfortable 3-1 victories at St. Mary's. As he looks forward to his first full season, he must be immensely proud of Rickie Lambert's impact against Scotland on Wednesday, and he says that more were looked at for Roy Hodgson to consider. So, this season must serve to justify the hype surrounding Lambert, Adam Lallana and Luke Shaw among others, as to their standing as to deserving a shot at their national team. In terms of signings, they have spent money on Dejan Lovren, an experienced centre back who has had international experience with Croatia, and Victor Wanyama , a midfield powerhouse who was on Manchester United's radar. Overall, I think that Pochettino has done an admirable job in the face of such criticism over the sacking of his predecessor and engineered Southampton that next level up where he has made them hard to beat wherever they play. More teams would've sussed them out than last season, but they have the nous and experience to steer clear of a relegation dogfight. Prediction: 13th