No idea why the moaning. The number of fixtures are same for everyone and every year there are few teams who have tough fixture lists like that. Heck, even big teams get some 4-5 tough fixtures on trot sometimes. He should be rather happy that relatively easier fixture and good job done by his team means his team sits in very comfortable position and onus is on the 'big guns' to get a result against them. For instance, as United and Arsenal trail them considerably, these two teams will have to push for win against them.
Even if from next 7 games they get 7 points, 33 points at half way is Europa league qualifying form at the minimum.
Yeah that's Premier League life.......it's great that are so many matchdays over Xmas and at the turn of the year (although there should be a winter break after all this fixtures but that's another topic)
But i can see why he is so worried
A) Next 9 PL games: Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Burnley, Everton, Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Arsenal & Manchester United
B) League Cup QF against Sheffield United....if they're going through then they're playing two semi-finals (Maybe against another top club like Chelsea, Tottenham or Liverpool) between the match against us at Old Trafford
C) Then there's a FA-Cup tie too (before their possible League Cup semi-finals)
D) They're losing Mane and Mayuka for few weeks because of the ACON
E) No international breaks anymore where some of their players can have a little rest......the games are coming now thick and fast
They had with Mayuka just one attacking player on the bench against Aston Villa (Rodriguez and Gallagher are still out) and their whole bench was not so good (Ward-Prowse and Davis are the other injured players)
F) Like said they're playing against the top clubs now in the next weeks means Southampton are now much more in the focus of the football world and that brings more pressure.......there's no doubt a difference to play on 3 pm against the likes of Leicester and few non-Southampton fans are watching their match on streams or the football world will watch the Manchester United match on a Monday night (Some Southampton players will read newspapers too)
Southampton deserve where they are the moment.......they're playing good football and their results aren't fluke results
But it will be very interesting to see where they are in the table after the match against us at Old Trafford on January 11