Russell Martin faces his old club for the first time since his departure back in the summer, the Swans supporters are still a little upset with the manner of his leaving and compensation is till to be agreed between Saints and the Welsh club, Xmas spirit may be in short supply.

Saints supporters will have their eyes on the 12.30 kick off again as they enjoy a pint or two in the pubs before the game, Leeds United travel to Preston North End and that is followed in the evening game when Ipswich host Leicester City.

The aim of the day is quite clear, to make up more ground on Ipswich and also perhaps leap above Leeds.

But we cannot influence those games, but we can however do our job in hand and that is make it not only 16 games unbeaten, but also make it 6 wins in a row at St Mary's.

For their part Swansea arrive in mixed form, their last 6 games has seen two wins, two draws and two defeats, in their last outing they beat Preston 2-1 with a last minute winner, so like most teams in the division they are capable of a result or two.

Team wise it will be interesting to see if Russell Martin tries to freshen things up a little after a lacklustre performance at QPR on Saturday.

One change you would imagine would be Ryan Manning coming in for James Bree who went off injured on Saturday, although to be honest I would not be surprised to see Jack Stephens employed at right back with Kyle Walker Peters again switched to the left, but I do not think that would be a good idea, Manning had a good game when he came on at the half hour mark, including a very good free kick which was flicked on by Adam Armstrong for the only goal of the game.

The issues though on Saturday came in the inability of the midfield to get the ball forward quickly, we were too pedestrian and also our passing was wayward, personally I would like to see Charley Alcatraz brought back in and used in the centre to give us some pace and attacking flair.

Again though what matters is taking three points more than the the performance itself, Saints have become very clinical and hard to beat, our problem is that at times we have got complacent as we did in dropping points with late goals to Huddersfield & Watford.

It has to be the Saints side that beat Blackburn out there, not the complacency away from home of late.

This as I have mentioned before is part of a four game trilogy, we have completed part 1 with a win, now comes part 2, we gained ground on Saturday, this is a great chance to gain more.

Photo: Action Images

SaintPaulVW added 08:58 - Dec 26 I am well aware of the disastrous mistakes Manning was making in the early season but he's played well in the last few games. Deserves his place. Similarly, I like Alcaraz, but he isn't a possession player. If that's our style then he's difficult to fit in. On paper you would expect us to do well against Swansea but with us, we are like Che, we make the easy look difficult. Finally as I'm sat playing family word games - Quadrology?

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underweststand added 09:45 - Dec 26 This is a match that has always has "an edge " to it, even way back in the days before the Millennium , and somewhat later to the dark days of bankruptcy (2009), when Swansea took blatant advantage of our plight and signed another star Nathan ( Dyer) for a pittance (400K) ...when the player should have been valued in millions. More recently we had the vital relegation game a while back when Gabbiadini's goal sent Swansea down to the Championship whilst securing Saints' survival for another season. Since the summer we have a whole new dimension with the acquisition of Russell Martin and some of his coaching staff which left the Swans still arguing about compensation. Whilst the clubs managements may still be at loggerheads over such issues, both sets of fans will have their own reasons for wanting to get a positive result. It should be an interesting meet - both on and off the pitch.

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lemmsy added 09:56 - Dec 26 A 4 game trilogy, mmm. I guess the spirits were flowing Xmas day!
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Peterx added 10:40 - Dec 26 We are not going to just turn up and beat this team. Giving it a full go is required.
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