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Can Saints Get Out Of The Bottom Three On Saturday By Winning At Leeds
Tuesday, 21st Feb 2023 09:23

It will be a tough ask, but if Saints can win at Leeds United on Saturday, then if other results go for them, it could see us get out of the relegation zone, can they do it !

Southampton travel to Elland Road on the back of a win against Chelsea and they go there with a far better record away from home that at St Mary's.

Four of our five wins in the Premier League this season have come on the road, victories at Leicester, Bournemouth, Everton & now Chelsea, whilst just the one has come at St Mary's.

Without a doubt this is the biggest game of the season so far as so much rests on it, it is going to be a pivotal point of the season, defeat is unthinkable, a draw would be a step forward, but a win would give us a big step forward and that step could see us pull out of the bottom 3 and sit in 17th place.

The first thing we have to do though is win at Elland Road, if we do that we leapfrog Leeds and go two points above them.

If we do that then we look towards London where West Ham take on Nottingham Forest, Forest have pulled away in the past 6 weeks or so and a victory would see them on 28 points and on the cusp of safety, this is a tough one to call, if Forest where to win then it would take one team out of the relegation battle and put West Ham right in it, if we beat Leeds and the Hammers lost we would jump above them.

The last result is at Bournemouth where the Cherries take on Manchester City, if the home side lose and we win we would jump above them as well, albeit on goal difference.

So a big afternoon for Saints on Saturday, the first thing we have to do is win, we do that and things will look a lot better and we could well be out of the bottom three.

If we look at the bigger picture though, a win for us would be great, but perhaps a draw for Forest at West Ham would be the best result in the longer term, the Hammers would stay above us on goal difference, but Forest would still be within our sights and looking over their shoulders.

The main thing though at Elland Road is to keep up the good work at Stamford bridge, that result will mean nothing unless we get something up in Yorkshire, even a draw would not be a disaster, but a win would make the clubs above us sit up and take notice.

I have said all season that our drop down the table back before the World Cup break was due to circumstance rather than the quality of the squad, we lacked a striker, we had a lot of injury issues and that contributed to our slide down the table.

Now things have changed massively, the injury list is not so much a problem and with additions to the squad in January we can cope better, we have signed a genuine centre forward in Tall Paul Onuachu and another striker in Sulemana as well as Charly Alcatraz, we have changed the manager not once but twice.

That means we go into the final part of the season revigorated, we are not a tired squad with injuries, a lack of goalscorers and poorly motivated, we are ready to put the first half of the season behind us and get a winning run together.

It won't be easy but we have made changes were needed, we just now have to build on it, there will be set backs, perhaps the trip to Elland Road will be one of them, but we can now move forward with the confidence we can take this battle down to the wire if necessary.

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Block8 added 09:40 - Feb 21
This is probably the two most evenly matched teams in the PL, both can play good football with no end result but both can leak silly goals. Hopefully the fact that we have improved our attacking options will be the difference. However we also need to play defensively as robustly as we did on Saturday. We have some tough games coming up and if we can get 3 points maybe it will give us a bit more confidence at home both in the team and crowd!
COYR
4

1962saint added 09:57 - Feb 21
What a boost it would be to get another away win and move off the bottom of the table. The win at Chelsea wasn’t just 3 points, it is a massive uplift in confidence after an all time low following the Wolves defeat.
The task ahead to escape from relegation is still massive but there are other great escapes to set an example many from the Saints in the Le Tissier era.
Another was by Leicester led by Nigel Pearson and this was followed the next season by the never to be forgotten Premiership title.
5

A_Saint_in_Stoke added 10:46 - Feb 21
Why not? .... Can we all now start believing in our players, no doubt there is going to be bumps along the way to - securing Premiership safety..
3

TissLeGod added 11:05 - Feb 21
It’s certainly what the team should be aiming for. Play with no fear and go for it. Would be great for our new attackers to get on the scoresheet. Leeds are not playing well and their last 3 home games have been 2 draws vs Brentford and Wetspam, plus a defeat to Manure. Our last 3 away games have yielded 2 wins. As long as Leeds don’t get a new manager, before this match I think we will win. However, we may still be in the bottom 3. Man City are capable of slipping up against Bournemouth who have not lost in their last 3 home games. Wetspam are under pressure but I fancy Forest to beat them. We need to pick up some home form, so winning at home vs Leicester the following week is also massive and that would get us out of the bottom 3 and could give us a bit of a cushion before we face Manure away.
2

SaintPaulVW added 11:21 - Feb 21
A full on relegation 6 pointer. These are the games we need to win. Luckily we are coming into it at the right time. As Block 8 says above very evenly matched teams.

Just hope Selles can build on the performance last week. I just feel that one of our new forward players is going to start to do something now.

Pressure cooker atmosphere so players like Charly are going to need to keep a cool head.

So....Yes we can!

COYR
2

felly1 added 14:03 - Feb 21
Obviously I sincerely hope so.
The reality is we tend to bottle these games going by this season and recent previous ones.
0

YosemiteSaint added 15:58 - Feb 21
The importance of this match can't be understated. We put in a good shift at Stamford Bridge. But the truth of the matter is that Chelsea suck this year. Here's hoping we can keep replicating the intensity and outcome of this past weekend's result.
1


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