Saints start the day in 7th and Crystal Palace sit in 19th, but what will the gap be by 5pm on Saturday as the league starts to take shape after half a dozen fixtures ?
Saints go into the fixture with the Eagles with high expectation's, sitting in 7th on 8 points they know that a win against the Premier League new boys could propel them as high as 3rd come the end of the day, but conversely a defeat could see them staring over their shoulders with Palace only two points behind, as Liverpool found last weekend, with the league so close in these early stages it is just as easy to drop a few places before you know it.
The big question is whether Mauricio Pochettino will persevere with Rickie Lambert and Osvaldo in the same team after three straight league games and neither firing on all cylinders, publicly the manager has backed both his players especially Lambert, but those present at Anfield will attest that it is a formation that benefits neither player and therefore not the team, Lambert was withdrawn just after the hour up on Merseyside and to be truthful we looked a better team for the change in tactics and formation, perhaps with this being a home game Pochettino will give the formation another go, but he and indeed the two players will know that if it fires blanks for a fourth time, then changes will have to be made.
Elsewhere in the team it will be pretty much business as usual, the keeper and back four are picking themselves at the moment with a series of outstanding displays, in midfield I expect the only real question to be asked in the centre, if Lambert is axed and Saints revert to the more rigid formation employed by Pochettino last season and indeed in the opening game of this, then who will play in the central midfield attacking role ?
Ramirez will hope that a stunning goal against Bristol City will have helped his cause, certainly in the opening two home league fixtures we have lacked imagination and flair in the final third and Ramirez is the obvious choice to provide that, however perhaps the manager could bring in Lallana to that role and employ Jamie Ward Prowse in a wider role, if Osvaldo was to be employed full time as the lone striker bringing in Ramirez would make sense, the Italian nternational is faster and more mobile than Lambert and could be better suited to the Uruaguayan's passing game, Ramirez has an eye for a through ball, but last season he had no real options in that it really wasn't Rickie's game to run the channels and latch on to a defence splitting pass, in that department through Osvaldo would certainly be better suited.
With two home games in a row before the International break, Saints have a great chance to make a statement of intent, but to do so they have to break down the lower table teams when they come to St Mary's, as Sunderland and West Ham showed, when a team gets men behind the ball Saints have found it hard to break them down, Sunderland are the Premier's worst defence, yet it took a last minute defenders header to earn a point, Palace will be more of the same getting men behind the ball and going on the break, Pochettino will be aware of his teams failings in the past two games and perhaps will want to do something different this time out.
There has been much talk of Saints champion's league aspirations, but to do that we need to take all three points in games like this, do it and follow it up next week against Swansea and I think we might just make a few eyes raise and a few pundit's sit up and notice, I think ultimately 7th would be the highest we could attain, but we have certainly made the start to suggest we could be this years surprise team from the non top six also rans.
I think Saints will win and I think if the manager makes the right decisions we will win well, but it is going to take some bold moves from the manager and this weekend we will again need him to show just why he was brought to the club.