The waiting is nearly over and the time is nigh to find out whether Saints have improved and are ready to take another step forward when they visit the Hawthorns.

Those who look for omens will be pleased to read, that the last time Saints faced West Brom on the opening day of the season, they despatched them 3-0 and subsequently finished 5th in the table as well as winning the FA Cup to boot.

To repeat all three of those feats this time out would be a wondrous thing, but for now it should be one step at a time and our first objective of the season should be to see off the Baggies.

The big questions that Saints fans will want to see answers for are firstly will Lovren and Wanyama make that extra difference that will change us from a side in the bottom third of the Premier League into one that is very firmly in mid table and not flirting with relegation, whether we have spent enough and more importantly just how good Mauricio Pochettino is as a manager.

Now the Argentinian is starting his first full season, back in January he was taking over someone else's side and therefore didn't have the time to completely mould the team, whilst there has been little incoming so far, the fact is that having now had all summer to work with the squad and presumably have an input into the areas that need strengthening, the honey moon for Pochettino is now over and he has to prove his worth, in truth after a reasonable start to his reign, Saints tailed off badly in the final half dozen games and we don't want a repeat of that.

Last season saw a bad start, but in essence we could almost afford that, 3 of those opening 4 defeats were against sides that you can afford to lose against, it could be said even not being in disarray that chances are we would still have lost to City, United and Arsenal in a normal season, so if you are going to struggle early on, better to drop points against those sides rather than teams who are going to be around you in the table.

This time out though its completely different, the opening four games are all potential six pointes in that if we finish below all four of West Brom, Sunderland, Norwich & West Ham, we will almost certainly be in or around the drop zone, finish above them all and it will be a decent season, this probably tells you though that at the start of the season there is no room for error as there was last, we have to be up and running from the start.

The trip to the Hawthorns wont be easy but there are worse places to start and Saints will feel that a point earned will be a good one, certainly most in the TUI Prediction League feel that a draw if the most likely result.

From a West Brom aspect its whether the Baggies have the fire power, they like Saints have not bought in many players in the summer and they haven't spent much, up front is Nicolas Anelka likely to be better than last seasons top scorer Lukaku, I would say not and a 17 goal striker is hard to replace, Peter Odemwingie could have been the man but problems still surround him, that leaves goalscoring to fall on Anelka at age 36 and Shane Long who hit 8 last term, or the on loan Vydra who hit 20 for Watford last term on loan from Udinese, the Baggies hopes possibly rest on whether Vydra can repeat that sort of form in the Premier.

One thing Saints cant do though is be worse than last season, in many ways our defeat at West Brom was the low point of the season and after that things changed and the dynamics of Nigel Adkins changed, it was almost as if he said if I go down Im going to go down my way, it perhaps meant the end of his Saints managerial career, but in the meantime we won some crucial games that really counted come the end of the season.

Saints go into the game with injury doubts and our lack of strengthening could come back to haunt us here, both first choice full backs could be out of the game and this could be crucial.

Its hard to see what way this game will go, in truth Saints haven't strengthened enough so the key question will be Has Mauricio Pochetinno instilled his system and the discipline needed to play it ? if the answer is yes then all well and good, but if the anser if no, then it could be a hard season.

A scoring draw looks to be the most likely option in this one

Photo: Action Images

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