The reality is that by Saturday evening Saints will be lying in 5th position, so it is vital that we make this a temporary stay outside of the top four.

A look a the Premier League table ahead of our clash with Manchester United on Sunday shows that several of our rivals have the opportunity to make up ground on us, but only one has a realistic chance of overtaking us.

Arsenal are at home to Stoke City on Sunday lunchtime and a win is likely that aligned with a defeat to us would see us level on points with the Gunners, however they would need to overturn a 10 goal difference deficit going into this weekend.

7th placed West Ham are at 9th placed Swansea so one of them hopefully both have got to drop points, if the Hammers win they get to within a point of us, so a draw or even a win for the Swans would be preferable.

Many have written off Liverpool this season but the reality is that if they win at Sunderland in the first Premier kick off of the weekend then they will get within 4 points of us ahead of our trip to Old Trafford and although they are still a club in turmoil they have hung on in there and with the return of Daniel Sturridge imminent they won't win the league but they cannot be written off for fourth spot just yet.

But the game that will really affect us is Tottenham Hotspur's trip to Crystal Palace, this is the game that can really put a dent in our top four aspirations, its the live Saturday evening game and all Saints fans will be watching it and cheering the Eagles on.

If Spurs win that will jump them ahead of us in the League by a point and that will give them an advantage in the race for the top four.

The hope is though that Spurs luck will have run out, so many victories for them this season have been by last minute goals or against 10 men after a sending off, sometimes both in the same game, if Saints havent had the luck of late Tottenham definitely have and hopefully this week will see it change for both sides.

A point for Saints at Old Trafford will be enough to see order restored and push the North London yobbos back out of the top four, ideally though we will win at Old Trafford and see the Eagle's soar at Selhurst Park and see the gap widen between ourselves and Spurs to 5 points again.

Im not hopeful of that but Palace are under a new manager in Alan Pardew and hopefully he will have a positive effect on them in the clash of two ex Saints managers.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters