Saints look to head into the International break holding on to their second place spot in the Premier league.

Saints welcome ex boss Nigel Pearson back to St mary's as well as Dean Hammond on Saturday afternoon looking to make sure that they spend that fortnight sitting in second spot in the Premier League, a draw would probably be good enough to achieve that, however far better would be a good win to ensure that we stay in that position due to our own merits and not relying on results elsewhere.

It won't be all plain sailing though Pearson's Leicester side have had some decent results this season, home draws with Everton and Arsenal not to mention their great win 5-3 over Manchester United, however all those results including their only other win a 1-0 at Stoke where achieved over 6 weeks ago and in the 5 games they have played since beating United they have only picked up a solitary point that being a 2-2 home draw with Burnley.

This indicates that the Foxes are suffering what many promoted sides suffer in the Premier League, a good start followed by a slump, Leicesters slump has seen them drop into the bottom 3 and Pearson will know that if that slide isn't stopped soon it could be hard to reverse, therefore Leicester will arrive with a gritty determination.

But there problem is that as much as they are the worst side in the Premier on current form, Saints are just about the best and at the moment look a complete outfit in every department, we have options in all areas and a healthy competition for key places, add Ronald Koeman's tactical nous and we are a tough nut to crack.

Barring any injuries not already known, RoKo has a few decisions to make for the game, at the back it will probably be business as usual, as well as up front with Pelle keeping up his good for, but in the centre of the park he has to make a decision or two.

The first one is in the centre, recently Jack Cork has been preferred to Victor Wanyama for the games where we would be favourites to dominate the midfield , Cork is better at moving the ball around the pitch faster than Wanyama and building attacks, however the Kenyan's display at Hull has given the manager food for thought and he could be tempted to leave Wanyama in the side, tough on Cork but after his goal and overall performance at Hull it would be tough to drop Wanyama.

The second decision is whether to restore Mane to the starting line up after his ankle injury, again Shane Long put in a great display at Hull and did nothing wrong, under normal circumstances there might be no question of playing Mane, but there are two issues here, firstly how well Mane's ankle has responded to treatment and secondly the fact that at Hull Long probably just about shaded in terms of performance, so Koeman might again keep faith with him to show that if you play well you keep your place.

This is a great problem to have and its going to get worse for Koeman with the return of Jay Rodriguez and James Ward Prowse to the squad in the coming month or so.

So Saints just need to keep on doing what they have done all season and that is keep it tight at the back and then attack with speed and precision, if they do that then Leicester have plenty to fear when stepping out on the pitch at St Mary's, they have not been prolific scorers this season that 5 against United accounting for almost half of the 11 goals they have scored this season, at the back they havent been great either letting in 16, only 5 teams conceding more with it being no coincidence two of them are the only clubs below them at present.

Their game plan may be clear, like Stoke it will be a case of trying to hold on to what they have and nick a goal against the run of play, if they try and play us at our own game we are more than capable of not only keeping it tighter at the back but outscoring not only Leicester but just about any side in the Premier at the moment, only Chelsea having scored more.

St Mary's will be full tomorrow for the first time this season and hopefully it will be a crowd that will get behind the team and stay behind it even if things don't go our way, in the past though full houses and Saints havent always gone well together, the extra supporters coming in often are there expecting what they have missed at previous games and can often turn a positive crowd into a demanding one that puts weight on the teams shoulders and drags them down.

Hopefully this wont be the case tomorrow, the crowd will get behind Saints in the way that when they do it makes St Mary's a very intimidating place for opposition teams to play football.

A good win for Saints and it leaves us well set up for a more tricky period after the International break , there are some that say our bubble will burst, perhaps it will, it did last season, but I feel we are much better prepared and stronger as a squad than a year ago, keep on doing what we have done well so far this season and we have nothing to fear and we might just continue to be the surprise side of the season long enough to start the so called big clubs below us become scared that we might not be catchable.

Photo: Action Images

schatfield added 16:08 - Nov 7 out of interest, how full can st marys be when full, given we have a 32,000 capacity, but bits get blocked off to segregate the away fans?
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cheltenhamsaint added 20:35 - Nov 7 There will always be one seat unoccupied
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