Southampton's strong opening to their Premier League campaign this season has been rewarded with a duo of September monthly awards. New boss Ronald Koeman, in only his third month in the job, took home the Manager of the Month award, while £8.8 million striker Graziano Pelle picked up September's Player of the Month. September saw Southampton achieve a 100% record and rise as high as 2nd in the league. All three teams beaten in the Premier League were also managed by ex-Saints with QPR's Harry Redknapp a recipient of this same award in March 2005 while Southampton boss, Swansea's Garry Monk having spent seven years as a Saints player, and Newcastle's Alan Pardew (2012 Manager of the Season) having joined the Magpies after being fired from Saints in 2010. In between these three league wins, Southampton also went to the Emirates Stadium for an impressive 2-1 League Cup victory over Arsene Wenger's Arsenal. Koeman, who this week was linked with replacing Guus Hiddink as manager of the Netherlands national team after a poor start to the Euro 2016 qualifiers, beat fellow nominees Chelsea's Jose Mourinho, Crystal Palace's Neil Warnock and former Saints boss Nigel Pearson, now at Leicester. He follows Saints predecessor Mauricio Pochettino, whose own strong start to his first full season at St. Mary's saw him handed the same award for October last year. "It's a personal prize for the manager, but I have to say thanks to the players because it's always the players on the pitch that win games," Koeman said on receiving his award, before going on to mention the low expectations that had many in the press tipping the club for a relegation battle pre-season, "Everybody was a little bit afraid before this season, but we've done a good job until now...We've had a great month. We've won a lot, which was maybe unexpected for a lot of people and maybe that was an influence on this prize." He also had praise for Pelle specifically on his receipt of the playing award. "He deserves it because he scores goals and he was important for the team. That's nice to see. It's one thing scoring goals, but another to be important for the team as a target man in the way he was. I hope that he will continue like that." The award for Pelle, signed by Koeman from his former club Feyenoord, capped off an excellent week in which he marked his debut for the Italian national side with a goal against Malta. He beat team mate Morgan Schneiderlin, British record signing Angel Di Maria, West Ham's Diafra Sakho, Leicester's Leonardo Ulloa, and Palace captain Mile Jedinak to the September prize. The first Southampton player to win Premier League Player of the Month since James Beattie in November 2002, Pelle scored three goals in September, including an incredible bicycle kick winner against QPR that was an early contender for Goal of the Season. The last time that Southampton took home both monthly awards was for Graeme Souness and forward Mickey Evans as the club just secured their Premier League status in April 1997, but Koeman will hope that his award speaks to a longer term success than it did for Souness who left Southampton that summer. For now, however, Koeman, Pelle and Southampton are looking ahead to this weekend's clash with Sunderland and building on September's successes with a run of relatively easy encounters that see Saints facing Stoke, Hull and Leicester over the next month.
