Saints visit the Stadium Of Light for the third time this season, they have had a loss, they have had a draw, so now its time for a win.
Saints travel up to Sunderland in the FA Cup hoping that the home side will have their eyes on other things, firstly their is their league position, some good results of late have pulled them up, but the midweek fixtures plonked them back in the bottom three albeit with a game in hand, although seeing as that game is at the Etihad, its probably not worth too much, so tight is it at the bottom that if the Black Cats had beaten Hull at home in their last Premier League game instead of a 2-0 defeat, then their two respective positions would have been reversed and it would be Sunderland in 11th and Hull in 17th.
There is also the small matter of the Capital One Cup Final in two weeks, inbetween that they also have to travel to Arsenal in the Premier, given all of this, perhaps Sunderland will not be concentrating too much on wining this game, what they definately wont want is a replay, which would be scheduled for the week preceding the final.
Likewise a postponement wont be welcomed by Gus Poyet it will likely to be as any replay in that week before Wembley, although perhaps a replay would suit Saints as they would have several players either back to fitness or nearing it, including Dejan Lovren and Gaston Ramirez, both injured in the league game exactly 4 weeks ago.
Poyet will have to make at least one change from his normal side though with Wes Brown suspended and the Sunderland manager has already said he plans to shuffle the side, using at least two players who havent much game time under their belts, but he has also stated he is taking the competition seriously and wont be making two many changes, that might actuially be a good thing for Saints as there are probably plenty of fringe players in his squad keen to put forward their case for a role at Wembley in a fortnight, will the first team regulars be as keen to risk injury and missing the big day.
Saints have no fresh injury news ahead of the clash, although there have been media reports that Jose Fonte has picked up a calf strain at Hull City, certainly there appeared to be no sign of it on Tuesday night during the game although Fonte did receive a bit of a gash on his leg as was revealed on social media.
If there are no new injuries then lets hope that its a full side out for Saints, Jesus Perez the Saints assistant manager has spoken about how the club are taking the cup seriously, but against that Mauricio Pochettino has also mentioned that with 3 games in the space of 7 days there is a need to rest players, so far the two league games have seen minimal changes, so it will be interesting to see if he does make changes, albeit it minor.
Saints fans for their part want to see us go for the win, the road to Wembley could open out if Sunderland can be disposed of, with the top four clubs in the Premier League being drawn against each other, two of them have to go out, the only other all Premier tie sees Everton host Swansea, so at worst there will only be three clubs ahead of us in the league in the last 8, it could be only two, a good draw in the quarter finals could see a very good chance of a trip to Wembley for the semi's.
This being the case and with our league position strong, we have to go for gold in this tie, we are the only team in the competition who dont have to cast an eye over their shoulder to the league, in that we arent going to win it nor be relegated.
This could be the best season for Saints since 2003, then we finished 8th and reached the FA Cup final, we now have the chance to better that.