About the only ray of hope in this game, is that since Brighton arrived in the Premier League, in 11 League matches and 1 League Cup tie, the home side has never won one of them, the Seagulls will hope to make it unlucky 13 for Saints.
There is little so say about this game that hasn't been said before in this sorry season for Saints, Ruben Selles himself has gone from positive about his and Saints future to negative in announcing that it is the manager's spot or nothing next season, surely even he knows that is an impossible appointment given his record this season.
What changes will he make this weekend ? the truth is who knows and I don't mean that in a good way, when he took on the job initially he looked to work with a small group of players, but as the season progressed he more and more had no solution other than to chop and change the team both in the starting line up, but also with substitutions meaning that at any given time in a game, the side was disjointed and never got any sort of consistency.
I wrote an article earlier in the week suggesting that the Southampton faithful would like to see him using youth in the final two games, I did not expect him to actually put untried youngsters en masse into the starting line up, but it would be good to see the likes of Dominic Ballard on the bench today.
But the truth is that with all the speculation flying around about a new managerial appointment imminent, what motivation does Ruben Selles have, what can he give his team both on the training pitch and dressing room ?
I would suggest very little he knows he is a dead man walking and so do his players, they and he know that some of them and indeed Selles himself won't be at the club next season, what can he say to his players that they will actually care about.
Perhaps he will point to the fans and ask the players to play for them if nothing else, certainly he could put out a side with a core of those who have never given up battling, Lyanco, Lavia, Ward Prowse, Adam Armstrong, Alcatraz, to name but 5, they would at least give us passion and there are a couple of more who would at least try.
I really can't predict what line up Selles will start a game with these days and that is a big factor in why our season has collapsed after a good start to his tenure, I would go as far as to say that as we have nothing to lose, we should perhaps have picked the side from an online poll on the clubs website, lets be honest it could do no worse than Selles of late.
Brighton have it all to play for, they have a great chance of European qualification, they probably won't catch Liverpool in 5th, but they will almost certainly get 6th place if they can beat Saints this afternoon.
But there are 3 clubs behind them within 2 points, although the Seagulls do have games in hand, perhaps the pressure will tell.
So to finish where we started, the best chance we have in this game is that fate takes a hand, that it continues to stick with the rule that the home side never wins in this fixture.