DELETECITY

Your club · Southampton

Fifth, then fifth again. Never fourth.

Take City out and Southampton finish fifth in 2014/15 and 2015/16, on 60 points both times. Fourth stays four points away, then two, and the wins they took off City come off.

At a glance

Premier League seasons
6 of 9 · 2012/13 to 2017/18
Points taken off City
8 in 12 league games
Transfers with City
No transfers with City in these seasons.

Season by season: real → without City

  1. 2012/13Real: 14th, without City: 15th
  2. 2013/14Real: 8th, without City: 7th
  3. 2014/15Real: 7th, without City: 5th
  4. 2015/16Real: 6th, without City: 5th
  5. 2016/17Real: 8th, without City: 9th
  6. 2017/18Real: 17th, without City: 15th

The nine seasons

Southampton spent six of the nine seasons in the Premier League, from 2012/13 to 2017/18, and three before that outside it. Without City they finish fifth twice, on 60 points both times. Neither is enough for the top four.

In 2014/15 fourth place takes 64 points, four more than Southampton’s. In 2015/16 Manchester United take it on 62, two more.

The rest is a trade. Southampton played City 12 times in the league, won two, drew two and took 8 points. Take City out and all 8 come off, and the wins cost the most. The 3–1 in February 2013 was Mauricio Pochettino’s first win as their manager. In 2012/13 and 2016/17 the points off City outweigh City’s place, and Southampton finish lower than they really did: 15th, not 14th, then 9th, not 8th.

Every other season moves them up. Twice it is only the free place, the one every club below City gets. In 2014/15 and 2017/18 the climb goes one place further.

2014/15

Seventh to fifth

Beaten 3–0 at home in November and 2–0 away in May, Southampton lose nothing. They keep 60 points and go from seventh to fifth: two places, one of them City’s. Liverpool lose three for their 2–1 win over City at Anfield and drop to 59, one behind.

It was their first season after Pochettino left for Tottenham, in May 2014.

2015/16

Two points short

The closest they come. On 1 May Sadio Mané scored a hat-trick in a 4–2 win over a City side with eight changes. Take City out and that goes: 63 becomes 60. Sixth becomes fifth, but that place is City’s. Man Utd finish fourth on 62, two clear.

2017/18

Past Huddersfield

Beaten 2–1 away and 1–0 at home, Southampton keep all 36 points. Huddersfield lose a point and slip behind them on goal difference: 15th, not 17th, three points above the drop. Both stay up either way.

The home game was the last of City’s nine seasons. On the final day Gabriel Jesus scored in the 94th minute at Southampton, and City became the first English top-flight side to reach 100 points.

The money

There is none to take out. Southampton and City did no deals in the nine seasons: no player sold to City, none bought from them, none loaned. City paid Southampton nothing in reported fees.

The table changes Southampton’s fate in no season, as the Ledger counts it. Fifth twice is a place in a rebuilt table, and a club in a rebuilt table earns nothing.

Every season, club by club

Positions are real of 20 and rebuilt of 19; see How it works.