Although Saints were defeated at West Ham, there top ten chances were done no harm by teams below them being defeated.

As we head towards the last 10 games of the season Saints top ten spot is there for the taking and defeats for some below us have helped our cause, Newcastle's late goal against Villa wasn't ideal for our chances of making it into the top 8, but it damaged Aston Villa who now sit in 13th place, 11 points behind us, make no bones about it, that is a big total to catch up, they need to average over a point a game more than us in the final run in.

West Ham are probably the side most likely to catch us, but they are still 8 behind and it will only take a couple of good wins for us to keep them at bay, they sit in 10th but time is running out.

Hull winning against Cardiff pulled them up to 11th and only 9 points behind, but are they good enough to catch us ? I would say no

Other challengers for the top ten include Swansea who were beaten at Liverpool and sit the same as Villa 11 points behind, the same applies to them as Villa, they have a lot of ground to make up now .

Surprise contenders for the top 10 are now Norwich after their win against Spurs, they started the day 4th from bottom only a point off the relegation zone, they finished it in 14th on the same points as Villa and Swansea, indeed if the Canaries win at Villa next week they will be in joint 10th place.

But for Saints its about seeing our rivals fail to make up much ground on us and as each game goes by it makes it harder for them to catch us, ideally we will win a few games an pull clear, indeed we would be sitting pretty if we had won at Upton Park, that was a chance missed but there are plenty more, we just need to take them and see the opposition disappear in the rear view window.

Photo: Action Images

Zambucco added 23:19 - Feb 23 That must have been one hell of a game Newcastle v Newcastle! oops
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SaintNick added 23:20 - Feb 23 ooops indeed thanks for pointing it out lol
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Sango123 added 04:25 - Feb 24 Top 10 was probably a great target before the start of the season. Now it feels like an opportunity lost since we had our best start to the season in our history. We finish 2nd for our previous best start. I just hope we get better next season and not slump like Swansea although Swansea's slump could be due to their Europa League commitments
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