It could be said that Southampton were a little fortunate not to be relegated from the Premier League last season.

They eventually ended the campaign in 17th, three points above the drop zone and breathing a sigh of relief following a poor year of football at St. Mary’s.

Mark Hughes came in to replace Mauricio Pellegrino in March and after initial struggles to pick up results, managed to steer them to safety via a hugely important 1-0 victory away at Swansea in their penultimate fixture of the season – Swansea ended up going down as a result.

Hughes and Southampton now have a big job on their hands this summer to ensure a repeat of last season is prevented, and many eyes will be on how they choose to operate in the transfer market.

It would come as a surprise to many to see the Saints struggle again in 2018/19 and if they can start strongly this time out they should be able to make a huge improvement – they go in to the new campaign on the back of just one defeat in five, so they will be confident of doing better.

Their opening fixtures of the 2018/19 Premier League season, now officially confirmed, will give Saints fans an indication of how likely that is…

11th August – Burnley (H)

18th August – Everton (A)

25th August – Leicester (H)

1st September – Crystal Palace (A)

15th September – Brighton (H)

22nd September – Liverpool (A)

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”255885″ player=”12034″ title=”Watch Southampton’s opening fixtures for the 201819 Premier League season”]

Verdict

After a disastrous season at St Mary’s last term that saw the Saints stave off relegation at the final hour, Mark Hughes will be relatively happy with the makeup of this season’s fixture list – especially the opening months – that enables them some genuine opportunities to put some early points on the board.

With an opening day visit of Burnley followed by a trip to Goodison Park, the run of fixtures that includes games against the likes of Leicester, Crystal Palace and Brighton should ensure a reasonable start for Southampton and provide a strong foundation for the rest of the season.