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West Brom Defeat Relieves Pressure On Southampton This Weekend

With Saints not due to play again until hosting Leicester City next Friday, those that are in the pessimistic camp were predicting that we would be looking over our shoulders come Monday evening with West Bromwich Albion due to play twice before then, but that pressure has been released slightly.

If you read social media you would be excused for believing that Saints are in the middle of a relegation battle, of course the last few months haven't been great, but this season has been one of the highest highs since we had last topped the league in 1988 and the lowest lows with our record losing streak.

There are things that have gone wrong but there are mitigating circumstances and if we had got to this position by a consistent record of winning one, drawing one and losing one, then the knives would not be out too much.

So in the aftermath of the defeats at West Brom & Spurs in the league, there were those who were predicting doom & gloom this weekend, West Brom were building up a head of steam and with two games to play, firstly at Leicester on Thursday evening and then at Aston Villa on Sunday then they could be right up our rear end by the end of the weekend,

But that pressure is now off a little after the Baggies were roundly beaten at Leicester City 3-0.

That leaves them 12 points behind us with only 6 games left, meaning they would have to win 5 games to get above us out of those last half dozen and that would rely on us not picking up another point, OK I know technically they could win 4 and draw one of the other 2, but are they good enough to lose only 1 of the last 6.

Likewise Fulham, they too don't play this weekend, but they have only 5 games left and to overhaul us they need to get 10 points without us picking up another, when you look a their remaining fixture list that is a very difficult task.

What we don't want though in the fixtures over the next few days is the three clubs between us and the bottom three jumping above us and making the League table look a lot worse than it is.

Newcastle are the nearest team to us only a single point behind on 35 points, they travel to Liverpool for the lunchtime kick off on Saturday, they start the day with exactly the same goal difference as us -18, but we have scored more goals so a draw would put them level, but behind us still on goals scored.

Brighton are perhaps the most likely to be able to leapfrog us, they travel to Sheffield United for the late kick off on Saturday night and are 2 points adrift at the start of the day, do Sheffield United have the will to beat them now the Blades are relegated, form our perspective we can only hope so, but the Seagulls can see safety in sight and they know that a win would see them 10 clear of Fulham in the third relegation spot and effectively safe.

Burnley go to Wolves on Sunday and are 3 points behind us and are one goal worse than us in goal difference, a win for them by one goal would be enough to draw level but again they have a worse goal difference than us and in that scenario they would be behind on goals scored, but a win by a two goal margin would see us drop below them.

So we start this weekend with the worry that we could actually drop to 4th from bottom if results go against us.

That would start the social media sites into meltdown again, but it would actually change nothing, the fact is that both West Brom & Fulham have a tough task and our destiny is completely in our own hands, one more win and we would be safe and if that win was against Fulham at St Mary's, not taking into account any other games, that would just about be enough.

This season is now about only two things, getting a points total that means we cannot suffer a freak relegation and planning for next season.

The first half of the season showed that we can compete with the best, the second was affected by things beyond our control, but also had some worrying issues that need to be addressed.

As Ralph Hasenhuttl has said there is plenty to do in the transfer window in the summer, both in and out of St Mary's

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