Saints take on Burnley in a televised game that will surely enthral the nation, but have their squad stretched to the limit.
Saints look to beat Burnley and jump into 8th place this afternoon, but the depth of the squad will be stretched to breaking point, Jeremy Pied is out long term and he will be joined for this game by both first choice full backs Ryan Bertrand and Cedric Soares and possibly second choice left back Matt Targett.
If that isn't bad enough Shane Long will probably also miss the game due to injury and then there is the duo of Jay Rodriguez and Sofiane Boufal, both are now fit, but are they match fit is the question ?
Boufal will probably play no part having not played since last season, however Rodriguez could well be on the bench, for no other reason than it looks like we will have little other choice.
That is a lot of players to be without and this number of injuries would stretch most squads in the Premier League, but outside of the teams that can afford to have squads full of Internationals, Saints are probably better equipped to cope with a crisis like this than most.
One thing that is emerging about Claude Puel is that he uses his squad well, last season we would have been faced with playing players who had barely played and were poorly motivated and not sharp, this season the players that come in this afternoon will mainly have had first team action this season and feel part of a squad rather than just a fringe player of a team.
But Puel is the man to rotate the squad and in many respects this injury crisis is just meaning that he is having to do what he normally does forcibly rather than by choice.
This is a game Saints need to win though, if they do then it will jump us to 8th in the league and that is a good position to be in, however if we don't then although we will still be well placed to mount a top ten challenge we will be left rueing a slow start to the season and the moaning will again start.
The supporters need to be patient though, these days we don't play with the gung ho style of the past, we play a possession and passing game and at times that can appear dull, especially when we face a side that is parking the bus.
But this style is no different than most teams that are successful, it is about being disciplined and hitting hard on the counter attack and that is something we do well.
What would be nice to see though is some better finishing, if there is one big area of criticism, it is our ratio of goals to chances, we have to improve that, if we do then there will be no problems this season, whatever some would say, we do not lack players in the squad who can score goals, the addition of Sofiane Boufal will further improve things, however we do not finish clinically enough at times and that has already cost us this season.
But we just need to do the job against Burnley then we can concentrate on where we are going next, where is that ? Oh yes Inter Milan, this is a good time to be a Saints fan, but there could be more to come this season.