Lately every game for Saints seems to be labelled "Crunch" but for both sides in Saturday's clash at St Mary's it could be a turning point in the season.
West Brom arrive at St Mary's with a new manager, Pepe Mel takes over the helm although he will only watch from the St Mary's stands with Keith Downing completing his spell as caretaker boss, Mel will be well known to Mauricio Pochettino from his time in pain when Mel managed Real Betis and ironically Mel's opening game will be Everton at home almost exactly to the day of Pochettino's opener against the same side last year.
West Brom are perhaps the yardstick for Saints in that last year the Baggies finished 8th in the table with 49 points and that is perhaps Saints target this term, for the record at the same stage last season after 20 games, the Baggies were on 33 points, some 6 ahead of where Saints stand going into this game.
Of course with West Brom hovering only just over the relegation zone going into this game it stands as a warning to Saints or indeed any other side who harbours hopes of a top ten position that this league is tough and a good position one season is no guarantee of the same the following term.
So for both Saints and West Brom this game can indeed be described as a cross roads in their season, for Saints even after only 5 points from the last 9 games they are still holding on to 9th spot, however the gap has been shortening between us and the rest of the league, although wewill still be 9th after the weekend whatever the result, it will determine whether we are still hanging on to the coat tails of those above us and we have upwards intentions, or whether we are looking nervously over our shoulders at the chasing pack.
For their part West Brom are only six points behind us as they arrive on the South Coast, however they are only four points off the bottom three, for them the questions that will be answered by this fixture are similar, if they beat us they will be looking for a 2nd half of the season run that will give them a comfortable mid table position, but if they lose they will be staring the relegation zone in the face, that should be a warning to us about how close we are to getting dragged down into the mire, 9th looks a good position on paper at the moment, but a couple of more win less games and it could be starting to get a bit too much close for comfort.
The time for excuses is now over, yes we have had injury problems, yes we have played some tough teams, but we have an easier run coming up and our injury problems easing, we have to show the character and spirit to get back to winning ways, the season will have a clear path over the next few weeks, get back to those fabled winning ways and we are still on course for the top 10 fail to win any of the next four and we will be in trouble.
The big question selection wise will be if Artur Boruc returns in goal, although Saints like to think they keep things close to their chests, what comes out of St mary's in the two days before a game usually reveals what is on the mind of the manager, on Thursday he revealed that Boruc was fit again and close to selection, almost the first mention of the Polish keeper since his injury six weeks ago, Pochettino will know that the return of Boruc would do wonders to restore confidence to a defence that has let in three goals in three of the last four Premier league home games.
Elsewhere in the side though it will be pretty much service as normal, with osvaldo suspended if Lambert is fit I would expect him to play up front and Rodriguez to be returned to a more wider role, out of neccesity more than anything else, although Pochettino might go for caution if Lambert's injury is worse than the club are letting on and go for a more defensive midfield with Rodriguez up top.
But the importance of this game should not be underestimated, Pochettino is well liked by Saints fans and presumably by Saints Chairman Nicola Cortese, but a run like this has to be ended, so far the manager has not had the fans on his back, but defeat to the Baggies would start to ask questions, other Premier managers have lost their jobs this season on the back of better runs than this, something has to change and the time to do it is growing crucially short.
But although I feel its important to highlight just how bad this run is and make no mistake it is bad and unnacceptable to continue, I still have faith in the manager to turn it around and continue the long term aims of the club and I back him to get it right tomorrow, perhaps the expectations of our supporters were artificially raised by that good run back in the autumn and that hasnt helped us, building a good sustainable Premier League team cannot be done over night, it has to be built on solid foundations and not false promises, Pochettino is learning about English football and has made mistakes, if he continues to learn from them then we should be ok.
So the key areas are that we cut out the defensive errors of the last two months, if we do that we are half way there, if we can then star to turn our high possession into goals then that is the second half of the problem solved.