Big Night In Premier League Relegation Battle
Those Saints fan nervously looking over their shoulders at the bottom 3 will either be sweating profusely or feeling a little silly after Wednesday evening's Premier League fixtures, which will be crucial as we head towards the last week of fixtures.
Some Southampton fans have been predicting doom and gloom for their team after the defeat at Brentford and this evening they will find out whether they were right to be worried.
The two fixtures that Saints supporters will be looking at are Leeds home game against Chelsea and Everton's trip to Watford.
The important one for Saints though is up at Elland Road, Leeds start the game on 34 points, 6 points behind Saints on 40.
If Leeds were to lose the game then it would be highly unlikely that Leeds would be able to overhaul Saints, they would only be able to match the 40 points Saints sit on should they win their final two games, but they start this evening with a goal difference 15 less that ourselves, with this increasing by at least one that would be virtually game over and Saints safe.
For their part Chelsea still need to win this game to ensure that they finish in 3rd place in the table, they are not in great form having won only once and drawn two of their last 5 Premier League fixtures and of course they will also be looking at their FA Cup final appearance on Saturday, but they do need to ensure that they secure that third spot and don't have to worry that Spurs and Arsenal could overhaul them and push them back to 5th.
Everton at Watford is perhaps less crucial for us, they start the day on 35 points, but they still have 4 games left going into this one, a defeat for the Toffee's would be preferable for us, but a Leeds one truly a relief.
Burnley don't play midweek, they are also 6 points adrift of Saints, but they have a tough 3 game run it, travelling to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, then to Aston Villa on the following Thursday and end the season at home to Newcastle.
What to read next:
Stoke AwaydazeOur visit to Stoke City is on Boxing Day evening, with kick-off at 8pm, having been put back by our very good friends at Sky Sports.
Preston AwaydazeOur visit to Deepdale is on Saturday, with a 12.30pm kick off, and once again we’re live on Sky Sports. As the name Preston North End suggests, the stadium is a mile or so to the north of the town centre.
Leeds ease to comfortable win over DerbyThe game played out as most of the fans on both sides would have predicted, apart from the identity of the two goalscorers. It took a while for us to break down a stubborn Derby County defence, but once we had scored the two goals there was only going to be one way this game was going to finish.
Leeds drawn at home to Harrogate in the FA CupTonight’s draw for the third round of the FA Cup threw up several local derbies, and the most enticing of all must be our all-Yorkshire clash with Harrogate Town, with the two clubs being only 15 miles apart.
Disappointing Leeds go down at BlackburnOur defeat to Blackburn Rovers has caused plenty of moaning on social media, while Daniel Farke has blamed our hectic fixture schedule. But it was a shame the team picked the game with our biggest travelling support of the season to serve up one of their worst away performances.
Blackburn AwaydazeThis season’s trip to Blackburn Rovers is tomorrow with kick-off at 1.30, provided the pitch has dried out enough after last week’s postponement. Once again it looks like we’ll be taking the biggest away following in the Championship this season.
Farke sees room for improvement despite victoryLeeds duly went back to the top of the table with a fairly routine victory over Luton Town, but Daniel Farke thought the win should have been even more emphatic when he spoke to the BBC after the game.
Leeds fighting spirit wins through as we beat Swansea to go topLeeds were twice behind in this incredible game at Swansea City, and then seemed to have victory snatched away right at the death. But each time we fought back and our sheer determination finally secured the victory that we needed to finish the weekend on top of the Championship.