Southampton news: Down with dignity or the joint-worst team ever?

It is almost 17 years to the day that Derby County finished the 2007-08 Premier League season with a record lowest points total of 11.

The Rams ended their campaign with six straight defeats, which culminated in a 4-0 loss at home to Reading on the final day.

Southampton need one point from their final three games of this season to avoid sharing that record, but how easy will that be for a side with nine defeats in their last 11 games?

Home matches against two of the Premier League’s top three in Manchester City – on Saturday – and Arsenal should prove hard enough, but sandwiched in-between is a trip to Merseyside for Everton’s final game at Goodison Park.

One positive for the Saints is that they earned their first three points of the season in the reverse fixture against the Toffees in November.

However, their league form has been poor since then and they have picked up just one point from the following 12 games at St Mary’s.

Interim manager Simon Rusk challenged his players to “end the season with as much dignity as possible” on Thursday.

He added: “One of the issues is we fell short this year. Whether that’s [because we are] competing at an extraordinary level of competition or not.

“When I inherited these seven games the main thing I wanted to do was to stick together in the good times and especially during the difficult times.”

Full commentary of Southampton v Manchester City from 15:00 BST on BBC Radio 5 Live on Saturday.