SAINTS must learn from the lessons of last season and capitalise on a favourable early fixture list in 2018/19.

They face just one of the big sides in their opening seven games and will be keen to avoid a situation like last term, when they won just twice in eight games during a very kind run of games to start the season under Mauricio Pellegrino, writes Peter Howard.

By the time a gruelling and tough December fixture list arrived Saints had not built a good base of points, which would have been enough to keep their heads above water.

As a result, Pellegrino’s men were dragged into a relegation battle and, after just one win in 17 matches, the Argentine was sacked and replaced by Mark Hughes, who is now, of course, permanent manager after leading the club to survival.

And the Welshman has been handed a fairly helpful early run-in next season, which must be used to make a solid start to avoid any of the bother from 2017/18.

Saints welcome Burnley on the opening day of the campaign, before taking on Everton (a), Leicester (h), Crystal Palace (a), Brighton (h), Liverpool (a) and newly-promoted Wolves (a) in August and September.

Things certainly got rough last season during a hideous festive run, but that was undoubtedly a consequence of their slow opening.

This time around a strong start would really set Saints up.

In the two seasons they qualified for European competition under Ronald Koeman that was a vital element.

They were strong in the opening months of the campaign and it allowed them a little flexibility when things got tougher at other points.

The flipside, of course, is recalling back to the horror of the Premier League relegation season when Saints squandered a host of decent chances to get early points on the board and then paid the price.

They were lucky that they did not pay the same price in 2017/18 after failing to convert winnable games into three points.

The early fixture list isn’t quite as kind as it was last season, and the tough run over the festive period is not too dissimilar to last November and December when Saints faced all of the big six in the space of ten games.

This time Saints have five of the leading teams in eight games across December and into January, facing Chelsea on New Year’s Day after playing Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal at the end of 2018.

In that run, they face Spurs away in a tricky midweek evening fixture, which may cause a few problems for travelling fans on public transport. Their only other midweek game so far is against Fulham at the end of February but that is at St Mary’s.

If Saints are in any danger come the final run-in, they face none of the big sides in the final five matches and play three of those, against Wolves, Bournemouth and Huddersfield, at home.

At the start of December and March they have a double bout of playing Manchester United and then Tottenham, which will certainly be a test of the team’s mettle under Hughes.

The word on social media after the release yesterday was that the fixture list has been very kind to Saints and, undoubtedly, there is ample of opportunity their for Hughes’ men to make sure they don’t end up in a battle at the bottom again. It will be a couple of weeks before the opening batch of TV fixtures are confirmed and there are sure to be many changes to come.

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