Saints need to keep racking up points to keep clear of the relegation zone with a tough set of fixtures coming up.
Saints havent been beaten much in recent months, this makes it feel like we are playing well and are not involved with the relegation dogfight anymore, but the fact is that we are not winning games, only one win in the last nine games plus six draws and two defeats, that gives us a grand total of nine points from those nine games and that is relegation form.
Of course there were difficult fixtures amongst those nine games, but to be blunt probably only three of them in Arsenal at home and Chelsea and Man Utd away, the others were all games that we should have picked up points in and although we did in most, we really should have won more than one of them.
This means now we still sit hovering above the relegation zone and havent pulled clear, yes its a close run thing, if we hadnt let in that late equaliser at Wigan then the table would look a lot better and if you add the Stoke game to it we would only be two wins from safety, but we didnt hold on in either and its now a frightening thought that as bad as Aston Villa have been they are still only three points behind us and thats too close to comfort.
We need to make sure that we keep at least a three point gap between us and the third relegation place, thats a bare minimum that with our goal difference will keep us out of the bottom three if we should lose a game and all those below us win.
Manchester City is one of those fixtures that we now need to pick up a point in to keep our heads above water, our failure to beat Wigan means that we go into two difficult fixtures against City and the now fast reviving Newcastle away knowing that two defeats would plunge us right back in the mire, past experience tells us that come the end of the season, usually one team will go into freefall whilst one of the bottom three will hit form and pull out, that team was us in 2004/05 when by March we looked to have pulled out of the mire, but our final eight fixtures saw us win only one game and that added to two draws and five defeats was enough to send us down.
Indeed this very week eight years ago, February 6th to be exact we let in a last minute goal at home to Everton to draw 2-2 a look at that final table of 04/05 shows that those two points dropped would have been enough to send us above Norwich, Palace and West Brom and to safety.
So this weekend is important, it could have and should have been one where the pressure is off us a bit and we could have gone into the game and put the pressure on City, now its one that we have to pick up something in and perhaps more worryingly at Newcastle as well, otherwise we go into March and what will be a tough game at home to QPR looking over our shoulders or perhaps even being in the bottom three.