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Will One More Win Be Enough ?

Saints fans are poring over the Premier League table and fixture list to try and work out just how many points will be needed if we are to stay up !

Saints fans will be hoping to avoid a last day biting of nails as we experienced in the 1990's but will that be possible as the season starts to reach it's conclusion.

With several clubs having a tough run in 35 points could be enough to save Saints, although it is looking like 38 will be the safety target this season.

In a weeks time we will know more with two tough away trips to Everton and Swansea and the fact is that four points from those two games might well be enough to keep us up, but will possibly still see us sweating on the last day.

As it stands there are still 10 teams who could go down, starting with West Brom for whom it is highly unlikely they could stay up and ending with Crystal Palace on 38 points who along with Bournemouth and Watford have probably just about done enough to stay up, although it sticks in the throat that Watford are safe given the way they cheated us out of three points, with those added we would now be out of the bottom three.

An initial glance at the table suggests that it is a straight fight between Saints and Swansea for the last place, but it is not as simple as that, for Saints two straight wins now would almost certainly guarantee us safety, but four points out of the trips to Everton and Swansea are essential if we are to stay up.

Swansea are away to Bournemouth at the weekend and the Cherries know a win will guarantee them safety, they follow it up with our visit and then on the final day have a winnable home game V Stoke.

But perhaps the two teams nervously looking over their shoulder are Huddersfield and West Ham both on 35, Huddersfield especially are nervous, with a trip to Manchester City this weekend followed by a midweek trip to Chelsea, it is hard to see them getting a point out of either of those two games and then they finish up with the visit of Arsenal on the last day.

West Ham have a difficult run in as well, Leicester away on Saturday won't be easy and then they finish with a midweek home game against Manchester United and then Everton on the last day.

Brighton may have done just enough on 37 points but they may find it hard to get another, if the visit of Man Utd on Friday yields no points then a midweek trip to Manchester City will be tough and they finish up at Liverpool, if they lose to United then they may be looking over their shoulder come the final day.

But Saints need to remain focused on what they need to do and get the job done, it could very well be that a win and a draw in the next two games will be enough to keep us up, although it will be a very tense last day.

Ideally two straight wins would see us on 38 points and a great escape that looked unlikely a couple of weeks ago would suddenly be achievable.

From a Saints perspective they are the team in form at the bottom West Brom aside, of the six teams above us, four have not won in the last five games and West Ham last won when they beat us, and that came five games ago when they beat us that being after three straight defeats.

In relegation dog fights it is often the team that finds its form in the run in that stays up and certainly in our last four League games we have put up a decent fight, even though the first two at Arsenal and against Chelsea ended in 3-2 defeats.

So things are hotting up, four points could keep us up, with our superior goal difference to all Brighton at the bottom, so will a solitary win be enough ?

The answer is yes it could be but we would rather it be two !

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