Southampton's transfer business has put the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool to shame, writes WhoScored's Ali Tweedale.
If there is one lesson to be learned from the past few seasons of transfer activity in the Premier League, it would probably be to avoid an overreliance on any one player.
Robin van Persie's departure from Arsenal hit the Gunners hard; Spurs have struggled to cope since Gareth Bale went to Real Madrid; Liverpool look a shell of the team that scored 102 Premier League goals last season now that Luis Suarez has gone.
Southampton, however, built a squad capable of dealing with a summer of outgoings and have shown their Premier League counterparts exactly how to cope with serious upheaval.
They replaced their successful yet young departing manager with a more experienced one, who quickly sought about specifically replacing each individual that had left.
They may have lost the bulk of the team that fared so well last season, but those coming in have shone already, and Saints are flying high, second in the Premier League after 10 games.
Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle, who have taken to English football well following transfers from the Eredivisie, have replaced Liverpool-bound Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert.
Previous imports from the Dutch top flight include Luis Suarez, Jozy Altidore, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Afonso Alves, highlighting exactly how mixed the fortunes of those moving from Holland to England have been in the past.
Tadic and Pelle, though, with respective WhoScored ratings of 7.54 and 7.42, putting them in the top 25 performers so far this season, have adapted seamlessly.
Tadic's six assists is already more than Lallana managed in the whole of last season, and while he could do with adding a few more goals (one so far, compared to Lallana's nine for the season), he is averaging 2.4 shots per game (compared to Lallana's 1.8), and more goals will surely follow.
Given that they received £26m for Lallana and he has made only six Premier League appearances for Liverpool, contributing just one goal thus far, Saints have certainly come off the better of the two teams.
Pelle was arguably even more of a risk, having only registered significant goal tallies in his two most recent seasons, netting sporadically throughout the previous eight campaigns in his career.
However, compare him to Lambert this season, who has managed just 165 minutes on the pitch, and bringing Pelle in seems a masterstroke. In fact, Pelle has scored two more goals (6) than Lambert has had shots (4) this season. The Italian is well on course to top Lambert's tally of 13 goals from last season.
It is at the other end, however, that Southampton have excelled most. They have the best defensive record in England, conceding at least twice as few goals (5) as any other team in the Premier League and at least four fewer than any other team in the Football League.
With Dejan Lovren's move to Liverpool, Toby Alderweireld has come in to great effect, forming a fantastic partnership with an increasingly composed and growing in stature Jose Fonte.
Alderweireld is making 2.0 tackles, 0.8 interceptions and 5.8 clearances per game, giving him a decent WhoScored rating of 6.92, but the stats suggest he is still some distance from the level of Lovren, who is rating 7.20 at Liverpool with 2.5 tackles, 1.8 interceptions and a monstrous 10.2 clearances per game.
It is worth remembering that at the 10-game stage last season, Southampton had actually conceded even fewer goals (4).
The final major replacement was Ryan Bertrand, fresh from a mediocre half-season at a relegation-threatened Aston Villa, and brought to St Mary's to replace £30m Manchester United signing Luke Shaw.
While Shaw struggles for fitness in a defence that has already shipped 14 goals, Bertrand has been ever-present, reinvented as a marauding full-back on the south coast, already picking up a goal and an assist in the league.
Shaw is making more tackles (2.2 per game to 1.5) but that is probably a result of a rather more rash approach to defending that has seen him caught out of position far too many times already in his short United career.
That is reflected more accurately in Shaw's reading of the game that sees him make 0.2 interceptions per game to Bertrand's 1.9.
It was predicted that the rebuilding process at Southampton would be a long and ongoing one that may take a few seasons, but their signings have clicked immediately, and coupled with their steadfastness in rejecting overtures for the likes of Morgan Schneiderlin, their summer's work has been fruitful, to say the least.
There is a long way to go and, as we saw last season when they began to fall off the pace when the games started coming thick and fast, it is tough to maintain this level for a full season.
However, this time around they look even better set to survive a tough winter in the Premier League.
You can follow Ali on Twitter @alitweedale.
All statistics courtesy of WhoScored.com, where you can find yet more stats, including live in-game data and unique player and team ratings.
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