Can Saints Get Out Of The Bottom Three On Saturday By Winning At Leeds Tuesday, 21st Feb 2023 09:23 It will be a tough ask, but if Saints can win at Leeds United on Saturday, then if other results go for them, it could see us get out of the relegation zone, can they do it ! Southampton travel to Elland Road on the back of a win against Chelsea and they go there with a far better record away from home that at St Mary's. Four of our five wins in the Premier League this season have come on the road, victories at Leicester, Bournemouth, Everton & now Chelsea, whilst just the one has come at St Mary's. Without a doubt this is the biggest game of the season so far as so much rests on it, it is going to be a pivotal point of the season, defeat is unthinkable, a draw would be a step forward, but a win would give us a big step forward and that step could see us pull out of the bottom 3 and sit in 17th place. The first thing we have to do though is win at Elland Road, if we do that we leapfrog Leeds and go two points above them. If we do that then we look towards London where West Ham take on Nottingham Forest, Forest have pulled away in the past 6 weeks or so and a victory would see them on 28 points and on the cusp of safety, this is a tough one to call, if Forest where to win then it would take one team out of the relegation battle and put West Ham right in it, if we beat Leeds and the Hammers lost we would jump above them. The last result is at Bournemouth where the Cherries take on Manchester City, if the home side lose and we win we would jump above them as well, albeit on goal difference. So a big afternoon for Saints on Saturday, the first thing we have to do is win, we do that and things will look a lot better and we could well be out of the bottom three. If we look at the bigger picture though, a win for us would be great, but perhaps a draw for Forest at West Ham would be the best result in the longer term, the Hammers would stay above us on goal difference, but Forest would still be within our sights and looking over their shoulders. The main thing though at Elland Road is to keep up the good work at Stamford bridge, that result will mean nothing unless we get something up in Yorkshire, even a draw would not be a disaster, but a win would make the clubs above us sit up and take notice. I have said all season that our drop down the table back before the World Cup break was due to circumstance rather than the quality of the squad, we lacked a striker, we had a lot of injury issues and that contributed to our slide down the table. Now things have changed massively, the injury list is not so much a problem and with additions to the squad in January we can cope better, we have signed a genuine centre forward in Tall Paul Onuachu and another striker in Sulemana as well as Charly Alcatraz, we have changed the manager not once but twice. That means we go into the final part of the season revigorated, we are not a tired squad with injuries, a lack of goalscorers and poorly motivated, we are ready to put the first half of the season behind us and get a winning run together. It won't be easy but we have made changes were needed, we just now have to build on it, there will be set backs, perhaps the trip to Elland Road will be one of them, but we can now move forward with the confidence we can take this battle down to the wire if necessary. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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