While FA Cup business may have taken focus for Southampton on Tuesday night, this season’s main aim will undoubtedly still be securing promotion back to the Premier League.
An excellent unbeaten run has seen Russell Martin‘s side move into second in the Championship table, and they are now 11 points behind leaders Leicester City in the race for the title.
At this stage of the season, that is of course a big deficit for the Saints to overhaul, but a remarkable statistic that has now come to light could give them hope of doing just that.
Southampton in ruthless form at home right now
While it may have been an FA Cup encounter, Tuesday night’s latest win for the Saints continued to show just how strong they are on home soil at St Mary’s right now.
After a goalless first half, a brace from Sekou Mara and late strike from Che Adams secured a place in the fifth round of the competition for the hosts.
As Daily Echo journalist Alfie House pointed out in the wake of that victory over the Hornets, those three unanswered goals mean that Southampton have scored 22 times, and conceded just once, in their last six matches at St Mary’s.
With that in mind, it does look as the Saints are going to be almost impossible to stop from an attacking perspective for any team making the trip to St Mary’s.
Martin’s side are averaging 3.5 goals per game during this current one, so any team that wants to beat them is going to have be prolific themselves in these games.
But with Southampton, by contrast, conceding just once in this period, it is clear that no opponent is going to find it all that easy to get past them.
When combining those two factors together, it is clear that the Saints have a winning formula at home that if maintained, could push them towards glory.
Form table also offers cause for optimism
It is also worth noting that while Southampton are in such near-perfect home form right now, though the same cannot exactly be said of Leicester.
If you are to look at the form table over the last four, and last eight home games, Southampton have taken more points than the Foxes in both.
Consequently, it seems that while they are currently comfortable at the top of the overall table, Enzo Maresca’s side are experiencing one of two blips as they look to get over the line in the race for promotion.
As a result, if Southampton are able to maintain this excellent home form of their own, which right now shows no signs of stopping, they may be able to close the gap on the league leaders ever further.
That in turn could put the pressure on Leicester, leading to more slips that could open the door for Southampton to potentially move ahead in the race for the title.
Of course, securing promotion any which way will no doubt be the priority for the Saints right now.
However, going up as champions would be a welcome bonus that, going off recent form rather than the table as a whole, may not be entirely out of the question just yet.