Saints go into December knowing that by the end of it they will either still be being acclaimed as this seasons surprise package or they will be being dismissed as a flash in the pan.
There are those that have sniffed at Saints great start to the season and suggested that its all been down to a little bit of luck in playing whom they have done in the opening 12 games, certainly there is some truth in that as in the main they have been lucky enough to come up against sides that have been going through bad patches with only perhaps Liverpool and Arsenal bucking that trend. What has to be said though, is Saints like every team could only play what was put in front of them and in that respect they did all that was asked of them and 5 th in the table is a great achievement whether they have played all the top sides or all the bottom.
By the end of December though, there will be no room for doubt, in this month of destiny Saints will play 7 games and 5 of those will be against sides who will either be above us or who at this moment in time are only 2 points behind us or less, this years battle for the higher echelons of the League seems to have come down to 9 teams after the recent good form of Newcastle and they will have as high hopes of a top six finish as we do.
So for Saints there is no hiding, by the end of the month we will have played every team in the league and it will be a guage of how good we really are.
But it wont be easy and Saints fans should be prepared for a few points dropped and should be looking at the bigger picture and how many points we get in total from these 7 fixtures not just at individual games.
That being the case, based on form I would expect that the predictions would be as follows
Chelsea - Lose 0 points
Aston Villa - win 3 points
Man City draw - 1 point
Newcastle draw - 1 point
Spurs Draw - 1 point
Cardiff - win 3 points
Everton draw - 1 point
This is I think a fair prediction taking into account that we are a hard team to beat, but that the opposition is getting tougher in December, if im correct and lets be honest I have never won the pools, then it would see a total of 10 points from 7 games, for the staticians amongst you from the same fixtures last year we got 6 points from the 6 fixtures that were on the fixture list back then, Cardiff who obviously werent you could substitute any of the relegated clubs for comparison, which would either have given 9 points if you took Reading or QPR or 7 if you compared Wigan.
This shows that we need to do better than we did last year against these teams to keep the momentum going.
Two of last season's highlights were the draw at Chelsea and the win against Manchester City, being blunt both teams whilst not setting the league alight are starting to hit form in the league and it will be a tough task to replicate 4 points from those 2, if we do then great, but personally I wouldnt put too much money on it.
As a rule of thumb if we get more than 12 points from these fixtures then it will be an excellent return and should see us still right up there with the top 5 places, between 8 & 11 will see us holding our own, but we will see a few teams creep up on us and overtake us and anything below 8 is quite frankly no better than relegation form and would almost certainly see us dropping down to anywhere between 7 - 9th.
The Premier league has been tight at the moment at the the top,this perhaps illustrates just how difficult it is for a team like Saints to break into the top six, we have had our best Premier League start ever, yet if we lose at Chelsea we will probably be 7th at best, conversely Manchester City are meant to be in crisis, yet here they are on the same number of points as us and limbering up nicely for their trip to St Mary's, there are two games in between then and now, how close we are to them after the 7th of December is anyones guess.
So this more than any month so far this season is a month of destiny, it is certainly the toughest month, not just in terms of quality of opposition, but in the number of games and that could push our squad to the limit, the starting line up is usually between about 13 players for 10 outfield places, we need to use the squad more and we need some of that squad to step up to the plate when called upon.
Whatever the final destiny of these games as we turn into the new year, the first half will have been a season to be proud of for Saints and we should go into January ready to get behind the team for the rest of the season.