By the end of the game against Everton at St Mary's this afternoon Saints will either be in the Top Ten of the Premier League or looking nervously over their shoulders.
Such is the compressed state of the Premier League, after yesterdays results Saints go into their fixture against Everton knowing that a win would propel them up the table into 10th place and an improbbable 5 goal win would see them in 9th.
That would leave them 7 points above the relegation zone, exactly the same amount they would be behind Liverpool in 5th place, this illustrates just how tight it is in the middle of the Premier League.
However a defeat would see the Toffee's leap over us and a drop to 15th and a very difficult December ahead of us.
A draw would see us move up only a single place.
So it's Top Ten or bust for Saints today, anything other than a win would see the crowd turn against Mauricio Pellegrino especially if he once again puts out what has become a very predictable way of playing.
For the Saints manager this is a very important game for him, the fans are turning against him as they did Pellegrino, the team at Liverpool appeared to be unmotivated, disorgamised and leaderless on the pitch, if we lose this one then the Saints board will have to be very worried that he is not the man for the job and will have to do something about it.
Pellegrino has to get this result, it will perhaps not improve his standing with the supporters in the short term, but it is a platform to build on and it pulls us away from that relegation zone and buys us breathing space.
Sadly thoug it is often gmes like this that in the past cost us dearly, we pay for the mistakes made in previous games and find ourselves missing key players just when we really need them and with Romeu definitely out and Lemina very likely that could be crucial today.
I have said this many times this week, but Saints fans need to be positive during the game, be behind the team and individual players at all times, if that helps us win and move up the table that is surely what we all want, if we do fail to take the three points then there will be plenty of time to protest at the final whistle.
No one is pulling on a Saints shirt this afternoon and meaning to play badly or make a mistake, remember that and encourage them, not get on their back !