CLAUDE Puel returns to Saints this Saturday eyeing another big win at his former club to protect himself from the sack at Leicester.

After a narrow 2-1 defeat against Manchester United on the Premier League’s opening day, the French-man was reportedly given – amazingly – just two games to save his job at the King Power Stadium.

The 56-year-old was able to tread back from thin ice on to more solid ground last weekend as he led the Foxes to a not overly convincing 2-0 home win over newly-promoted Wolves.

That was game number one in his two-match mission to save his own bacon.

Now he heads to St Mary’s, where, last season, he triumphed in an undoubtedly satisfying 4-1 win against the club he was sacked by in 2016/17 after taking them to the League Cup final and 8th in the Premier League.

Saints will now want to stop Puel’s fruitful visits to St Mary’s and give themselves a much-needed first win of the Premier League season.

Oriol Romeu, who was one of Saints’ finest performers under Puel, admitted he’s looking forward to seeing the Foxes boss but is keen to avoid a repeat of last December’s defeat.

“He’s always been very good with me, so it’ll be good to see him but I hope he doesn’t win,” the defensive midfielder, who won Player of the Season in the season Puel was in charge, said.

Certainly, Mark Hughes’ side are under a bit of early pressure to get off the mark, with the concern and discontent at St Mary’s not far over the horizon if the team continue to labour in their displays.

There has been reason to be optimistic, with second-half performances against Burnley and Everton showing glimpses of what this team might be capable of.

However, the Leicester game is carrying a bit of a ‘need-to-win’ tag.

Saints will be pleased with Jamie Vardy’s three-match ban after he was sent-off against Wovles last time out.

It means the Foxes’ most dangerous goal threat will not be able to get at Saints’ backline, which struggled without Jannik Vestergaard at Everton.

Vestergaard is set to return for Saints after missing out through illness at Goodison Park.

And with Vardy, who scored 20 Premier League goals last term, out, it’ll put more impetus on James Maddison to get the goals at St Mary’s. Saints and Leicester battled it out for the Norwich star in the summer, but Maddison eventually chose to move to the King Power in a £22m deal. The 21-year-old scored his first Foxes goal against Wolves last weekend.