It will take a few results going our way, but can Saints finish with a flourish and finish in 10th ?
Such is the compact nature of the bottom half of the Premier League this season that Saints amazingly go into the final game of the season at home to Stoke City knowing that if results go their way then it could be a tenth place finish, but if they lose and results dont go our way then we could actually finish fourth from bottom only a few points ahead of relegated Wigan Athletic.
The first lesson to take from this though is that it emphasises that in the bottom half of the table there isnt much to seperate the sides and that we shouldnt get too carried away with tenth as much as finishing fourth from bottom wont spell disaster either.
But that being said it would put the icing on the cake of what has been a season most Saints fans would have taken on the first day of it, should we finish with that flourish and hit the top 10.
But as mentioned to do that we need a few results to go our way first, and of course there is the little matter of beating Stoke City.
Truth of the matter though is that tenth is a little unlikely in that West Ham who currenly hold that position three points above us finish their season with a home fixture against already relegated Reading, its hard to see them losing that one, at best a draw and that of course would give them a point that would mean we couldnt overtake them.
But having established that tenth is perhaps needing a little too much at Upton Park, 11th is certainly well within our grasp, Stoke are there at the moment with 41 points and of course if we beat them we leapfrog them, that just then leaves the little matter of jumping above Newcastle and Norwich City.
The Geordies have a tough home game against Arsenal who are one of three teams left in the Premiership who actually have something concrete to play for, they along with Chelsea and Spurs are looking for that Champions League place, yes Chelsea are virtually guaranteed a top 4 finish in that their goal difference is far superior to Spurs, but they still need to finish third and avoid the preliminary Champions League round.
Norwich are away to Manchester City and although City are a club in turmoil, again its hard to see the Canaries getting a win at the Etihad and if we beat Stoke then thats not good enough to stay above us come the final table.
So the likelihood is that if we do our job and beat Stoke we probably wont get to tenth but at the eleventh hour so to speak we can get to eleventh place.
However before we get carried away as some did a few weeks ago, we could just as easily drop to 17th, of course as mentioned if we had been offered that back in August we would have been delighted, but there will be that feeling of anti climax if we lose on Sunday and Sunderland, Villa & Fulham jump above us.
Sunderland though have the toughest task travelling to White Hart Lane, to meet a Spurs side who know that even a win might not be good enough if Arsenal beat the Toon Army, however they will go out and do their job first and hope for a miracle up in the North East.
Aston Villa as we all probably know travel to Wigan and it could be that Wigan will be distraught and given they will be showing off the FA Cup to their fans might not be too bothered about a meaningless three points.
Fulham travel to Swansea City for a game that has draw written all over it.
So there you have it, to reiterate the truth is wherever we finish isnt going to point anything towards next season, due to the compact nature of the league 10th wont indicate anything more than 17th, neither will foretell triumph or disaster, however there is money on the game due to prizes for league position, so from that view its important we get as high as we can and in the same motion leave everyone with a smile on their face to finish off the season.