There are nine games left, but by the time Saints finish the fifth of these fixtures we will know exactly where the season is likely to end up.

Although there are still nine games and over two months of the season left, Saints destiny will almost certainly be decided by the first five of these fixtures, when Saints come of the field on Saturday 29th April after the game against Tottenham Hotspur they will know whether they are going to scrap it out for 6th or 7th, whether they are challenging for a Europa Cup spot or even if they still have a sniff of the Champions League.

On three occasions this season Saints have put in five game spells where they have won four of them, on two of those occasions the fifth game in the spell was a draw and on only one did it end in defeat, now Saints need to at least replicate that latter run of results.

If they do then there is every chance that they will not only have cemented a top six place but will still have a chance for the top four.

The games are very winnable, starting with Burnley at home, followed by Everton away, Hull at home a trip to Stoke and finally the most crucial of the five Tottenham Hotspur at home.

The reality is if we win all three home games then it will put s in a very strong position, as it stands currently Arsenal in 3rd are averaging 1.96 points per game, Man Utd 1.93, Liverpool 1.86, Saints 1.72 and Spurs obviously the same.

The task is clear, we need to not only maintain our points average but increase it, the good news is that with a lot of those sides mentioned playing each other at least a couple of them will struggle to maintain their average and this could let us slip in on the rails.

So bare minimum from this spell should be 9 points or 1.75 points per game average, a good tally would be 11 or 12 and an excellent one would be 13 or 15.

The real key though is whatever happens in the other games we need to not lose the Spurs fixture.

By the end of this five game run we will not only know what we will be fighting for in the final four games, but even if we are already in Europe.

The key weekend in these fixtures will be that of the 18th/19th April the fourth fixture,that day we travel to Stoke, a win there would be good in that the Potters are one of the clubs who are chasing us, but it is events elsewhere that could really alter the course of the season.

The big game in the Premier League that weekend is Manchester United at Chelsea, but also Spurs have to travel to Newcastle and that won't be easy for them, but it is at Wembley that could make the difference.

If Arsenal beat Reading and Liverpool after beating Blackburn in a replay follow that up by dispatching Aston Villa in the other semi then an Arsenal V Liverpool final will guarantee a Europa cup spot, assuming of course that we havent lost all our games and have been overtaken by several clubs and are now 8th or lower, if we have maintained at least the 1.75 average or more by this point we could be planning our European tour after this weekend.

If that is the case that will set us up nicely for the clash with Spurs and perhaps a chase for a Champions league spot.

So it is five weeks and five games of destiny and the good thing is we have to do nothing more than we have managed to achieve all season and that is a good starting point, but the reality is we now have the chance to put all our injury issues behind us, play a few winnable games and put our foot on the gas.

Photo: Action Images

TimSaint added 10:32 - Mar 20 Take your point and agree but you seem to have the fixtures muddled for our next 5 games. We have played Stoke at home already - winning 1-0 courtesy of Mane, so we have them away. We are home to Burnley, away to Everton, HOME TO HULL, away to Stoke and the home to Spurs. After Spurs, we go away to Sunderland and then go to Leicester, before finishing off with a home game against Villa and a final game away to City. Still optimistic, but with the Arsenal on a run and Liverpool and Man U getting all the luck and decisions, I think it is really between us and Spurs to fight it out. On paper Spurs perhaps have an easier run in, but at this stage of the season, who knows what can happen. Lower teams can suddenly find championship winning form and other teams have nothing to play for, so are more relaxed and this can achieve results, plus there is bottle, so who knows. All we need to do is keep getting results and let the others worry about us, then who knows, perhaps we will continue to surprise people right to the end :-)

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SanMarco added 12:06 - Mar 20 Even 7 wins might not be enough for the CL but if we can come 6th it will be a tremendous achievement.
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bstokesaint added 13:02 - Mar 20 Our players seem confident of CL football next season. With Saints I mean. That seems hugely optimistic in my opinion. but maybe the recent trip to Switzerland helped galvanise them enough to buy into their manager's winning mentality. So that 'just' means beating all of the teams at the bottom in the fixtures we have against the 6/7 bottom teams, beating Stoke and then winning against Spurs or Man City. 8 wins, 24 points and 74 total, a virtual guarnteed tally for CL football. If we pull that off we dserve to win the thing! As I've said before just to finish in the top 6 is a huge achivement. Although to make this count for anything we need to keep the manager, the majority of the players and invest big in strengthening the squad to try and push on again next season.

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SaintNick added 13:34 - Mar 20 Thanks for pointing out the muddle lol reality is though we have a great opportunity if we can win the games we really should win, 7 wins would almost certainly get us a top four place
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