Southampton boss Russell Martin believes his side’s four-game losing streak earlier on in the season is the best thing that could have happened to them, speaking to BBC South Today.
The Saints had made a decent start to the season, securing 10 points from a possible 12 in their opening four league games with three wins and a 4-4 draw against Norwich City.
This decent run of form happened amid major movement at St Mary’s, with quite a few key players leaving in August including Nathan Tella who had made a good impact during the first few games before sealing his move to Bayer Leverkusen.
Coming into their fifth league game of the season against Sunderland, they would have wanted to put up a fight against the Black Cats.
Tony Mowbray’s side are strong – but they were without Ross Stewart and had some new signings who needed time to adapt to life at the Stadium of Light.
The Saints capitulated on Wearside though, suffering a humiliating 5-0 defeat which would have been hugely disappointing for the travelling supporters who had to get up early to travel across the country for a lunchtime kick-off.
One positive for them was the fact they had an international break after that match, but they went on to suffer defeats against Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough after the interval, with the defeat at the Riverside being particularly frustrating considering that was Boro’s first league win of the campaign.