This Saturday Southampton face Everton in another must-win game in the bid for Premier League survival – the right result could see them jump up the table.
The Toffees are a side who are comfortably mid-table with not much left to play for this season, meaning the Saints could realistically go to Goodison Park and snatch a win, especially with the confidence-boosting duo of their win last week and how they dispatched Everton last time out in the 4-1 drubbing.
That result was Southampton’s best of the season, and they will desperate to summon some of that spirit that saw them overturn the Toffees – a win could take them up as high as 15th in the table – if results go their way.
At the same time however they could drop to 19th and potentially be just one point off the foot of the table, with West Brom facing Tottenham this weekend.
The Baggies interestingly drew with the Spurs in the reverse fixture and have a habit of drawing with the London side, and having shown an upturn in form since Alan Pardew’s long-overdue sacking.
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On the flip side, Saints could potentially leapfrog West Ham with the right result, as the Hammers face Leicester at the King Power on Saturday. What works against the Saints is that Puel’s Foxes are on a torrid run of form of late, winning just four games all calendar year in comparison to the five-from-eight start the Frenchman enjoyed.
However the Hammers haven’t beaten Leicester now in several seasons, with a handful of draws the best they have been able to produce since the 2014/15 season. This bodes well for the Saints, as they have a superior goal-difference meaning if they win and West Ham lose, they would jump above them.
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However the side with the toughest fixture this weekend and incidentally the toughest run-in, are Huddersfield. The Terriers have to face three of the league’s big six before the season concludes, having not won in the league already since February.
This Sunday is the toughest of their three remaining games – Manchester City. Their goal difference is already ten worse off than Southampton whilst they sit on the same 35-point total that West Ham. If they are rolled over by the champions – a realistic possibility – they could end up with the worst goal difference in the league.
Huddersfield have impressed in periods over the campaign but with their tough run-in, they could easily sleepwalk into one of the three relegation places.
Beneath the Saints in 19th are Stoke City. Much like West Brom they have won a couple of vital matches recently and are now just two points beneath Southampton but they boast the worst GD in the league at -33.
Stoke opponents this weekend – one of only two remaining fixtures for the Potters – are Crystal Palace. Roy Hodgson has worked wonders at the Eagles and they now sit 11th, with survival all-but confirmed. Palace however did win the reverse fixture last calendar year and also did the same in the three matches previous – this again sits nicely in Southampton’s favour.
The final side – Swansea City – are the most interesting team to note. Despite being managed by the charismatic Carlos Carvalhal, the Welsh side could still very realistically go down, and this weekend face a tricky match against Bournemouth.
You never really know which Cherries side are going to turn up – their style of play can frustrate the big guns on their days whilst last weekend they failed to get going against Southampton themselves.
What the Saints need is for Swansea’s result to either match or be worse than the south coast outfit’s. That way, when the two teams meet on Tuesday, Southampton could leapfrog them with a win and get out of the relegation zone.
The only thing that falls in Swansea’s favour is that their final game of the season is against Stoke – a team who may nothing to play for by that point in time. The Saints meanwhile face Manchester City, who even in first gear could romp any side 3-0. This weekend will be a nervy one.