Saints look to make it four straight Premier League home wins and extend their unbeaten run to five games and in doing so push a step nearer the top six.

The only thing certain about Ronald Koeman's team selection will be that no one will be quite sure what line up he will be put out till the team is announced.

At the start of the season I said that the money brought in from selling Schneiderlin and Clyne would allow us to replace two players with over twice than number and that has enabled Koeman to use his squad in recent weeks to good effect.

The main advantage has been in the centre of the midfield where despite being without candidate for player of the season Steven Davis in the past couple of games we have still has the quantity and the quality to make sure that he is not missed too much and this has really paid dividends, a year ago an injury or two would stretch us, now we have the depth to not only cope but prosper.

Of course it cannot be denied that the return of Fraser Forster has played a big part and almost certainly without him at Arsenal we would not have got a point and that is a big foundation to build on, once again we have a reputation for being mean in defence and in truth that started before Forster returned, even in our terrible run we were not shipping goals and that has meant we have only conceded 7 in the last 10 games.

This enables us to head into the West Ham game with confidence and a psycological advantage, not to mention a thirst for revenge after giving them the game up at Upton Park in the final game of 2015.

That should not mean we should underestimate them, indeed they start the day five points ahead of us, quite simply if we harbour hopes of a top six finish e have to beat them, if they should win an eight point gap is a very big one to make up.

Its a slim margin between success and failure in the top half of the league, indeed if Saints had won at Upton Park just over five weeks ago they would now be sixth with fifth very much in our sights.

Of course it is all ifs and buts, but it does illustrate just how tight it is this season.

But the task is clear to Saints it is all there for the taking and we have a squad capable of taking it, we are a year more experienced than we were this season when we fell away badly in the final third of the season, we are heading into form and now we need to show it.

Ronald Koeman will be the key man in this game, he needs to get the team selection right and make the right changes when needed, he has done it to perfection in the last four games so hopefully that will continue

Photo: Action Images

aceofthebase added 19:00 - Feb 5 I hope that I think his team selectoon is rubbish because recent games when I thought this we have won and bossed things
0

saintwonston added 20:18 - Feb 5 Whatever team selectionRon makes is fine with me. COYS
0

IWOZTHERE added 08:01 - Feb 6 Big BIG game...Can Harrison Reed play on the left? or is there a risk of Yosh coming in as a c/b and RB taking over Targett's recent role?
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Swindon Town Polls