Saints will be hoping former manager Mauricio Pochettino and his Tottenham side suffer another in a long line of European hangovers on Sunday.

The teams will face each other at White Hart Lane this weekend in a mouth-watering clash for the first time since Pochettino quit St Mary’s to move to north London.

Before that highly-anticipated showdown, though, Spurs must negotiate tonight’s Europa League tie at home to Turkish side Besiktas.

Pochettino’s views on the competition are well known to Saints supporters.

During his time on the south coast, he made it clear that he is not a fan of the Europa League and that its rigorous schedule “kills you”.

Pochettino has changed his tune since joining Tottenham, claiming it is now a different situation as the winners will secure a place in the Champions League. His actions, however, have suggested he is still not sold on it, having made sweeping changes for each of their three games so far.

But even that has done little to arrest the worrying trend for Spurs of a significant drop-off in results immediately after a Europa League fixture.

Their two defeats, not to mention their worst performances by some distance, in the Premier League this season have come on the back of a Thursday night game.

After a 3-0 win at home to Cypriot outfit AEL Limassol in August, Spurs lost 3-0 to Liverpool at White Hart Lane three days later.

Then, after drawing 0-0 away to Serbian side Partizan Belgrade two weeks ago, they were surprisingly beaten 1-0 at home by lowly West Brom on the Sunday.

In mitigation, Spurs did thump QPR 4-0 at White Hart Lane after their first Europa League match of the season.

However, bad results on the back of European games have been a noticeable trend for some time.

Since the start of the 2012/13 campaign, Tottenham have averaged 1.3 points per game in the Premier League following a Europa League fixture.

By contrast, that figure stands at two points per game when they have had the Thursday night off.

Last season, the impact on their Premier League form was particularly dramatic, as their impressive win rate of 61.5 per cent dropped to 41.7 per cent after midweek European games.

Pochettino has attempted to negate that effect by rotating his starting line-up, making seven, nine and ten changes respectively in the three Premier League games that have followed a Europa League contest this season.

But many of those who are rested must still deal with the additional travel at times, or a different training routine during the week, which may have an impact.

Whatever the case, two home Premier League defeats in a row without a goal being scored has left Pochettino a little red-faced.

Another loss, particularly to the team he walked out on just a few months ago in order to supposedly pursue bigger and better things, would be highly embarrassing for him.