Is one of Saints fans’ biggest pre-season fears being realised?

The club have only scored 12 goals in their first 11 games of the 2016/17 Premier League season.

That is the lowest goals for figure, after 11 matches, in the club’s five seasons since returning to the top flght.

In 2012/13, Nigel Adkins’ newly promoted side scored 15 - even though they only had five points on the board out of a possible 33.

In 2013/14, Mauricio Pochettino’s Saints had also scored 15, while in Ronald Koeman’s first season, 2014/15, Saints had 23 goals after 11 games.

That last figure was helped, of course, by Saints smashing Sunderland 8-0 at St Mary’s.

Last season, 2015/16, Saints scored 18 times in their first 11 games.

Possibly of more interest is the fact that Koeman’s men ended last season by hitting 24 goals in their last 11 league games - double what they have scored in the first 11 under Claude Puel.

In a way, that is no real shock.

Graziano Pelle and Sadio Mane, Saints’ two top scorers in the league in 2015/16 with 11 each, both departed in the summer.

In addition, Shane Long - 10 league goals last term - has yet to get off the mark for Saints under Puel, though his season has been disrupted by injury.

It was feared that Saints might struggle to score as frequently as they did under Koeman.

That is meant as no disrespect to Charlie Austin, a proven Premier League scorer, or indeed Long, who enjoyed his best ever top flight season in terms of goals in 2015/16.

But Austin and Long do not seem to play at the same time.

Long has only started three league games under Puel - the first two against Watford and Manchester United and the home game against Swansea on September 18.

Since that Swans match, Long has been restricted to just two sub outings in the league - 16 minutes at West Ham and 19 at Leicester.

That is no doubt a blow to the man who won Saints’ player of the season award in 2015/16.

Elsewhere, due to the system Puel plays, the onus is on Dusan Tadic and Nathan Redmond to weigh in with their share of goals.

Redmond, transformed from a winger to a roving striker under Puel, has so far scored three times in 11 starts - a ratio which will see him reach double figures if maintained for the rest of the season.

Tadic has just one goal to his name - in the 3-0 win at West Ham - in 16 appearances under Puel in al competitions.

Though he has scored in each of Serbia’s three World Cup qualifiers this term, his record of 12 goals in 76 league appearances for Saints - 12 of which have come off the bench - underlines the fact that his creativity outweighs his ability to find the back of the net regularly when it comes to the Premier League.

With Jay Rodriguez still to recover his best form after his horror knee injury suffered two and a half years ago now, the pressure is well and truly on Austin to carry on scoring.

Thankfully, his career record suggests he might continue to do just that.

His career record, following his penalty at Hull last Sunday, reads 124 league goals in 237 appearances - a ratio better than one in two games.

Ok, most of those goals were scored outside the top flight, but his record in the Premier League is impressive - 18 goals for a relegated QPR team in 2014/15 shows that.

Austin, therefore, is a proven goalscorer, and Puel certainly needs one of those as he bids to emulate the achievements of his predecessors.

Austin is his only proven goalscorer, and fans will be concerned he is being relied upon too much.