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Saints At Watford The Preview

Will Saints get away with it at Watford or will they get punished as they did against Arsenal, the truth is that nobody knows and we should have one aim now and that is to get over the finishing line and plan for next season.

In the two games played so far we have seen the good and the bad of Saints, in the first Norwich could not capitalise on our slack defending, in the second Arsenal certainly did and 2-0 could easily have been double.

This is nothing new I am getting sick of writing the same verdict game after game, not just this season but the last one and the one before that, one thing is clear that the solution is not at the club, we need to buy in and buy in well, the same players have made the same mistakes time and time again and will not change their ways now.

So what does Ralph Hasenhuttl do this afternoon at Watford, the truth is he is not in control of the situation, he knows that he is being let down defensively by individuals and he has no one to replace them with, Jack Stephens is missing this afternoon and so he will probably have to play Jannik Vestergaard so it is out of the frying pan and into the fire for his team selection.

Ralph must be frustrated, he works hard all week and then certain players defend like school boys.

So anything could happen at Vicarage Road, it is going to be a lottery, but whatever happens the underlying problem is still there and needs to be addressed.

Ig I was Ralph I would try something different, I would find out if some fringe players are up to the taske, that means Kevin Danso in the centre of defence, Che Adams up front in place of Michael Obafemi and sticking with Kyle Walker Peters, all three have been overlooked in the main, but they cannot be worse than those that kept them out of the starting line up against both Norwich & Arsenal.

Watford are not in the best of form, a late equaliser against Leicester won them a point but they lost the next game against Burnley, before the break a win against Liverpool came out of nowhere and was the only win in 7 league games before the suspension of the Premier League. so in their last 9 games they have taken only 6 points out of 27.

That came after Nigel Pearson had initially sparked a revivale that dragged them off the bottom of the league, but they still stand only a point above the relegation zone.

Perhaps out of all the four clubs now seemingly vying for the last two relegation places with Norwich now seemingly doomed, Watford have the most fight and Saints need to match that. The Hornets don't score many at home , only 17 so far and three of those against Liverpool, but they don't concede either having let in only 18.

Their home form is good, only 4 wins, but 6 draws and only 5 defeats, they don't lose many at home and they keep going right into the last minute of injury time as they showed Leicester and indeed us on several occasions in recent years.

So from this perspective a draw would be good for Saints, the Arsenal game showed we don't have the quality at the back to get us up into the top 10, but perhaps a few results here and there might nudge us close, we just need to get to that 40 point mark and then concentrate on next season.

A win would get us to that points total and would effectively see us safe, Villa could then only reach that total if they won at least 4 of their last 6 games, Watford would be in the same boat, so today is important to get a result and then build from there.

It has been a frustrating season, but we should take the positives and not the negatives, Ralph Hasenhuttl has shown that he has what it takes to tackle adversity and come back stronger, the past is gone, only the future matters and that means getting this season done and moving on.

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