Will there be a debut for our new signing from Spurs.
Perhaps the biggest question Saints fans have about tonight is whether Yago Falque will start the game, certainly he looks bolted on for a place on the bench and to play at least some part in the game to provide some much needed width on the right hand side.
The other question is whether Jose Fonte is ready to make his comeback, if he is, then it will be Aaron Martin who will more than likely make way, other wise it should be pretty much the line up that started against Nottingham Forest, although its unclear whether Fraser Richardson will be fit or if Dan Harding will continue to deputise at right back.
But the big question is in the midfield and whether Nigel Adkins decides to stay cautious and stick with the line up that played well against Forest or whether he goes for the jugular and employs the attacking skills of Yago, if he does that then he has a very difficult task to decide who he drops out of Hammond, Cork & Schneiderlin, as all played well at the City Ground.
No one can deny this is a must win game,if only because there is a tangible reward for winning this one and thats returning to the top of the division, any other result would see us stay in second place with the Hammers up there on merit rather than just having played before us.
But its an important game to win from the point of view that we need to show ourselves and indeed the chasing pack that we are over a difficult last two months, in the current form table West ham lay 3rd with 1`3 points from the last six games, Cardiff 7th with 11 points and perhaps ominously top are Birmingham with 14 from their six outings, we are 12th and have notched only 8 points from those games and thats not good enough, however a win tonight would up that to 10 points from the last six and although thats not brilliant its a big step in the right direction and one that can be improved by beating Cardiff which would push us to 12 from six and thats just what we need, so the target for Saints is clear, win our next two home games and we are back on course.
Leicester wont be easy, they know they need to start moving up the league if they want to make the play offs, of course they were one of the pre season favourites to win the division, second only to West Ham, now whilst the Hammers are top of the betting odds again, Leicester are in 11th place to win the division and even at 123/1, the best price, it would be a big optimist who went for that one
But perhaps we should note on those odds, that although there title winning odds are high, the odds for them getting promotion is as low as 6/1 at some bookies, that tells us that the bookies at least still fancy them in the play offs.
But our task is still the same as it always was, if we achieve that ratio of two points per game average then we will finish in the top two, the key is to keep winning at home then win at least four out of our last ten on the road.