SOUTHAMPTON, England — A sense of relief swept across Southampton as the team managed to escape establishing an undesired Premier League record. By managing a 0-0 draw against Manchester City on Saturday, Southampton surpassed the lowest points total ever recorded in the competition.
With this draw, Southampton now holds 12 points in the league standings, surpassing Derby County’s notoriously low single-season total of 11 points during the 2007-08 season. “It’s nice to get that off our backs,” commented Southampton defender Jack Stephens. Despite this small consolation, he expressed regret over the team’s overall performance, admitting, “We’re obviously still very disappointed with how the season has gone. We’ve not been good enough.”
Southampton’s relegation from the Premier League had already been confirmed, having secured only two victories throughout the season, and currently finds itself nine points adrift of the next-to-last ranked team, Leicester. While the team’s performance has ensured its place among the least successful squads since the Premier League began in 1992, it narrowly avoided being labeled the worst on record.
In spite of the challenging season, Stephens expressed some solace for both players and fans, saying, “I’m very happy for the lads and the fans to have something to smile about.” While the season’s outcome is not what supporters had hoped for, this survival from infamy offers a glimmer of positivity amidst the gloom.