Saints take on Chelsea on Saturday knowing that if the Blues win then they will have their sights on the top five, but a defeat will leave them floundering in mid table.
The Premier League is tightly packed together at the moment, the ten clubs starting with Manchester united in 5th and ending at West Bromwich Albion in 14th are separated by only 9 points.
Chelsea of course have had a terrible season by their standards sitting in 12th with 33 points, yet in recent weeks they have put a run together that has suggested that they have put the disastrous form of the first four months of the season behind them.
They have not lost a Premier League game since their 2-1 defeat at Leicester City on the 14th December, a run of 10 League games unbeaten, a fact that has gone largely noticed due to the fact that with 6 of these games being draws and only 4 wins the points total has not been enough to propel them right up the league, in comparison in the same period Saints have won only 1 more point than Chelsea.
Of course both club's ten game spells have run different paths, the first half of Saints's was abysmal with the second half being brilliant, whilst Chelsea's has been consistent.
Also Saints have achieved their with some great results against clubs around them, whilst Chelsea have in the main not played the top six, a win at Arsenal was the exception and 2 draws against Manchester United, but apart from that the other 7 games have been against lower opposition, indeed the other 3 Premier League wins in that period have been against relegation zone clubs Newcastle and Sunderland with a win at the free falling Crystal Palace the other.
But Chelsea have quietly got an unbeaten run together and will now be looking to turn those draws into wins and perhaps propel themselves up into the top five, it is perhaps a bit much to ask them to overturn a 14 point deficit and overtake Manchester City in fourth, but they will not consider the 8 point gap between themselves and United insurmountable and a win at Saints would bring them within four points of us.
So Saints job against Chelsea is simple at worst to make sure that they do not start winning, every failure to take three points makes their task that much harder and at best to beat them and leave them trailing in our wake with little chance of a tilt at the top five.
But they should not be underestimated, good teams do not become bad ones overnight and Chelsea have some outstanding players, but to counterbalance that they are a club who are in limbo, they do not know who will be manager next season and the Premier League is not a priority, as they cannot get into the top four this term they are more concerned about trying to win the Champions League or at least the FA Cup to ensure European competition next season even if it is only the Europa League.
So Saints can go into this game with confidence, Chelsea are a team able to raise themselves for the big occasion, but perhaps not for the lesser clubs as we have seen in their list o draws in this unbeaten run, they have the skill and the talent, but they do not have the motivation in the League at the moment, but that doesn't mean that they should not be treated with the utmost respect, they have the capabilities to beat anyone on their day.
So Saints need to nip the Chelsea revival in the bud and in doing so take another big step themselves towards a top five finish.