Saints will be guaranteed to move up at least one place in the Premier league table if they overcome Stoke City at St Mary's and take all three points.

If Saints beat the Potters on Saturday afternoon they will leapfrog both Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United. That means that come 5pm on Saturday we could be fifth in the table if we have beaten Stoke.

But how long we would remain there would be dependent on Sunday's fixtures, Spurs host the Hammers on Sunday afternoon, a draw would see us stay above both clubs assuming that we had done our bit and won at St Mary's on Saturday, but a victory for either club and they would climb back above us, although the loser would stay underneath us.

But a win over Stoke would guarantee us at least sixth place after the weekend's fixtures have been completed and we need to hope that Manchester United drop at least a point at Watford and Leicester's bubble burst's at Newcastle, if that happen's we could find ourselves within a point of third place.

But a win for us could also put some breathing space between us and the chasing pack behind us. Palace start the day with only a point seperating us, they play Monday when they host Sunderland, again hard to see anything else bar an Eagles victory.

But Liverpool go to Manchester City and Everton home to Aston Villa, so there is a great chance to get distance in there and behind them it is Stoke and Watford in 11th & 12th respectively.

So this is looking like one of those pivotal weekend's where the wheat gets sorted from the chafe and Saints have got a wonderful opportunity to start to climb the table and put pressure on the clubs who start the weekend in front of us but looking over their shoulders.

Of course some would say that we have to just win our games and worry about the rest later, there is some truth in that, but every team needs luck and no club has ever won the League unless their rivals have made mistakes along the way, so it is not just about your own performances.

Sometimes a late goal can make a lot of difference to how a table looks, we know that from Leicester's injury time equalsier at St Mary's last month, if we hadn't conceded that we would now be fourth only a point behind United in 3rd and the Foxes themselves who would be fourth.

So Saints need to do their job on Saturday and if they do then we take another big step towards not only equalling last season but bettering it.

Photo: Action Images

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