Saints have an injury crisis and a player who can't play against his parent club and they take on an Arsenal team top of the Premier League and looking to go 4 points clear, surely there can be only one result or will it be of those special days we get at Saints every now and then ?

Saints go into this game without a recognised right back, Tino Livramento & Kyle Walker Peters both out with injury and a potential replacement in Ainsley Maitland-Miles unable to play against his parent club.

Add to that Armel Bella-Kotchap still out with his shoulder injury and Romeo Lavia only returning to training late in the week and so not match fit, you have a squad that is missing four of the five best players it has injured, with James Ward Prowse being the only one of that top 5 unable to play.

So Ralph Hasenhuttl has to make a decision as to whether he keeps a back four and moves someone in as a temporary replacement, perhaps moving Romain Perraud across from the left and playing either Larios or Djenepo on that side.

Or does he go for a back three playing Lyanco alongside Caleta -Car & Salisu.

He also has a crisis in the centre of midfield, Maitland-Niles who has slotted in well over the last couple of games as mentioned can't play and with Lavia unlikely to return it looks like Ibrahima Diallo will be the only option.

So on the face of it things don't look good for Saints, but on the plus side, unlike a couple of years ago, they should still be able to put out a decent experienced side and have a bench that is not mainly packed with inexperienced youngsters.

But the stark reality is that assuming there are no other injuries we are not aware of we are down to about 15 or 16 outfield players who are in normal circumstances would be in contention for a place in the squad.

That means that there will be youngsters on the bench, perhaps right back Lewis Payne who made his first team debut at Cambridge in the League cup and could feature in this game as could Dominic Ballard who also played and indeed scored at Cambridge, it could also see prodigal son Tyler Dibden make another appearance on the bench.

So far this preview has been all doom and gloom, although hopefully things will ease for the trip to Crystal Palace , certainly Maitland-Niles will be able to return and possibly Lavia, so in many respects this game is one that can almost be written off before a ball is kicked, a free hit for Ralph as it won't be too difficult to pick his starting XI give who is available.

But sometimes it is games like this that suddenly go down in history, ok its a long shot, but Saints have triumphed in adversity before, indeed it was another Sunday afternoon game almost 29 years ago, on 24th October 1993 to be precise, when a then title contending side Newcastle arrived at the Dell and left with a 2-1 defeat after two superb strikes from Matthew Le Tissier.

So will a hero emerge in this game and write it into the history books as Le God did 29 years ago tomorrow, certainly in the last two games Saints have put in a spirited performance to grind out 4 points, there will be those that will say we played badly in those games and the opposition dominated, yes for periods they did, but when that happened we dug in and showed resilience and we need to show the same fighting spirit this afternoon.

At the moment the only stat that counts for Saints is the final score at the end of a game, we have to get points on the table and pull ourselves well away from the relegation zone.

So it's backs against the wall at St Mary's a time for everyone to stand up and be counted, that means no repeat of the disgraceful outburst during the second half at Bournemouth, protests are for after games, not when a side is 1-0 up and heading for victory.

It is very hard to predict anything other than an Arsenal win, but that is the beauty of football, we just never know what might happen !

Photo: Action Images

forest_saint added 11:03 - Oct 23 Why is JWP unable to play?
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underweststand added 11:41 - Oct 23 I agree (Nick) that this type of match is ideal to bring in young hopefuls and see how they perform against the best teams on the day (in this case Arsenal) although not all at once. Lewis Payne has been outstanding at RB last season for the B side-even though he still qualified for U18's. I'm sure you meant Tyler Dibling (!) who got that " identical hat-trick " at Newcastle last season, although he is unlikely to feature so soon after returning from his " summer sojourn " at Chelsea, but we're more likely to see in-form Dom Ballard on the bench with 6 goals in 10 starts so far this season, before they feature together. As for the rest ?..with so few experienced players available, the rest of the team will pick itself, and maybe we even see Theo Walcott getting game time against his old club.

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