It doesnt matter whether as a Saints fan you are looking up or down, here we look at the weekends fixures and how they could affect us.

Some Saints fans are looking up to the top ten whilst others still prefer to remain cautious and not consider that until safety is virtually assured, whatever your thoughts on the subject, the fact is that this weekend will again go a long way to sorting out just where we will finish come the end of the season.

The weekend's fixtures stretch from Saturday till Monday and when they are over it could be that Saints will be completely mathematically safe, to do that we need both Aston Villa and Wigan to lose and us to win, if that happens then safety is assured.

So starting at the bottom lets see what games will affect us, Sundal lunchtime sees Reading Entertain QPR, a few weeks ago perhaps this might have been a crucial fixture, now it looks to be only deciding which of the pair of them will finish bottom, indeed at least one of them and probably both will be relegated this weekend whatever the result.

Next up is Wigan who have a 3pm kick off on Saturday with Tottenham Hotspur the visitors, for their part Spurs have their eyes on a Champions League spot, old habits die hard and Im finding it difficult to want Spurs to win matches after the reigns of both Hoddle and Harry, but on Saturday I definately want them to win and in truth it would amuse me to see Chelsea miss out on a Champions League spot as well.

Aston Villa dont play till the Monday and they host Sunderland whose revival has pushed them to within two points of us, again this one will depend on how we have fared against West Brom, if we lose then a Villa defeat is called for, indeed if we have won and Wigan lost then of course a Villa defeat would see us safe, so im still going for that, but on the other hand we want to keep both well below us so a draw might be best.

Newcastle are at home to Liverpool and with the fact that Newcastle are only a couple of points behind us, a Liverpool win is best in the long run to keep them well below us whatever the score at St Mary's

Stoke are hosting Norwich on the Saturday and a draw is the best result for us whatever happens, ideally from a football purist view a Norwich win would push Stoke a little closer to the drop zone, put I think their win at QPR might just be enough for them to survive this season so its probably immaterial so lets stick with a draw here.

For those looking upward, then its Goodison Park and Everton V Fulham thats the biggie for them, an Everton win could see us leapfrog Fulham, indeed even a draw might be enough and moving above them on Saturday could be a big confidence boost to us.

If we truly harbour hopes of a top ten finish then West Ham & Swansea are our real targets, we need to finsih above at least one of them and with three points difference Saturday is an ideal time to make up the gap, beating the Baggies aligned with West Ham losing at Man City and Swansea following that up a day later by getting walloped at Chelsea, would see us jump above the Hammers, but to overtake the Swans they would need a good drubbing at Stamford Bridge with us needing to put West Brom to the sword.

That just leaves Arsenal V Man Utd, apart from Reading V QPR just about the only fixture that doesnt have some sort of affect on our season of the whole weekend, as i say the only interest I can drum up on this one is that I would like to see Chelsea miss out on a Champions league spot and that being the case an Arsenal win is called for.

So another big weekend for Saints and one that at the end of it could see them not only safe from relegation but in the top ten, now that would be a good weekend, personally I would just accept a good home win and Wigan and Aston Villa getting beat, whatever the situation above us then we would go into the final three games in good form.    

Photo: Action Images

simmo400 added 13:03 - Apr 24 We cant control other games so lets get behind the team saturday. Thats all we can do. Im sure MP has read your post Nick and now realises what needs to be done saturday. COYS
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SaintNick added 13:25 - Apr 24 No one said that we can control other games, however if we want to finish above where we are now we do need the teams above us to drop points, if they don't then we can win all four games yet still finish exactly where we are now
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LennyJam added 13:37 - Apr 24 I would be happy with a finish of 14th and above
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aceofthebase added 08:02 - Apr 25 we started the season in 13th place thanks to the alphabet. any improvement on that would be great.
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