Saints travel to Stamford Bridge looking to avenge their battering 11 days ago in the FA Cup.
To the neutral Saints travel to West London with two hopes of a result at Chelsea, Bob Hope and No Hope ! but perhaps the Blues recent form at Stamford Bridge offers Saints a chink of light, after all QPR went their recently and won and Chelseas home form hasnt been great at Stamford Bridge, but you do have to put that in perspective in the fact that they have hardly played at home in the league in the last six weeks, since drawing 0-0 with Fulham on 28th November only two sides have visited in the League, Aston Villa who were battered 8-0 and the aforementioned QPR, plus Swansea in the Capital One Cup.
All three teams were put to the sword, but QPR and Swansea somehow managed to keep a clean sheet and took their chances when they go them and that is the key to getting a result at Stamford Bridge.
But even the most ardent Saints supporter wouldnt put too much money on Saints keeping Chelsea out, those at Aston Villa on Saturday know how fragile this defence is and if Aston Villa can create so many chances then how many are Chelsea going to fashion out for themselves, the question is will they have the finishing power they did against Villa when in truth they just seemed to take their chances rather than completely obliterate Villa who in fairness didnt play badly, or will it be the side who coulent score against either QPR or Swansea.
Both of those sides based their victories on a solid defence and a man of the match goalkeeper, our defence's problem is that away from home it loses the men it should be marking too easily and that could be a real problem.
You hope that perhaps we might be able to step up our game and dig in, but personally having watched every one of our away games so far, usually live at the ground but barring that the full game on TV, very rarely do we put in a comprehensive defensive performance, in every game there have been errors, even the win at QPR saw a sloppy goal conceded where their scorer lost his marker in the box and had a free header from close range and I can barely remember a goal on the road that hasnt been down to some sort of error from one player or another.
But football is a funny game and sometimes you do get a result when none is expected, however im not holding my breath on this one.
What Saints have to do is show that they can maintain discipline in defending, it could come down to goal difference at the end of the season and the important thing in this game is not to concede too many and that in itself will be a good nights work, call me negative if you want, but im a realist and I know how bad our defence has been.
Chelsea rely on pace and passing to cut open defences, we have no pace in any area of the team and we are often outpassed when defending resulting in players easily leaving us for dead and being unmarked, its happened in every game so far, its going to happen at Chelsea we have to get to grips with this.
I truly hope that I have to eat my words come 10pm tonight, it will give me no pleasure to see us slaughtered, but if we are to achieve anything tonight then we have to set out our stall properly, sadly I feel that perhaps Rickie Lambert should be rested and Jay Rodriguez played as the lone striker, our forays into Chelsea's half may be sporadic and we need someone mobile up front who can chase the ball down, not only in an attacking sense but being the first line of defence and not allowing Chelsea too much time building from the back, Rickie is not fast enough to do this, Rodriguez is, for some dropping Rickie is unthinkable, but this is the Premier league, in games like this you have to grind out results, QPR and Swansea didnt get their wins from playing football they got them from hard graft.
That fact will also probably see no place for Ramirez, we need a midfield five who can work non stop for 90 minutes and that isnt the Uruguayan we also need wide men who can track back and cover Chelsea's overlapping threat on both sides, on the left I would have preferred to see Fox covering Shaw, but with the youngster out it might fall on Fox to play left back, who will play in front of him will be crucial, worryingly I cant see an obvious choice, De Ridder might have pace, but even in a short period at the end of the Villa game he gave the ball away twice and put pressure on us, one of them earning a stinging rebuke from Rickie Lambert, personally I would use Ben Reeves to provide some pace down that wing.
If we can get this game out of the way, then hopefully by the time we face Everton we will have at least one new central defender in place, day 16 of the transfer window is upon us and after four months to identify players we seem no nearer any crucial signings other than Forren, its time this club dealt with its shortcomings on the pitch.