January's done, where will we finish?

I'm still going with 7th place. I don't think West Ham will catch us. And so long as Liverpool, Arsenal or Utd win the FA Cup, that will be enough to get us into Europe.

6th place would not surprise me, but most likely would require one of Spurs and Liverpool to slip up against the other top seven sides on a regular basis whilst also being distracted by the Europa League.

I really cannot see us finishing 5th or higher, as much as I would obviously love us to.

 

4th for me. With Morgan and Vic back and Toby nearly there we're a completely different side.

 

I would expect it to be more than 70 pts this season. Arsenal are only 28 pts away from that, with 45 pts still available. Are they really going to drop 17, maybe 18, pts over the next 15 games? I would doubt it. That's a minimum of six games that they would have to slip up in, potentially as many as nine.

I would have a guess at 74 or 75 pts.

 

For all those who voted other than third "Oh ye of little faith".

 

I would have voted 2nd Godders!

 

We're ahead - they need us to slip up! The games against them are crucial, and we have the home advantage.

 

3rd because why the hell not!

 

Imagine the last day of the season scenario where Saints draw with/beat a Man City side already safe in second place, to pip Man Utd to fourth place. I can already see the conspiracy theorists demanding a replay/stewards' enquiry. If it happens, you heard it here first.

 

They can call conspiracy all they like, but City will do their best to beat us. Only fans go in for stuff like this...players don't and managers certainly don't.

 

Certainly possible, but I think that we'll need to find a steady source of goals, as the margins for the top four don't really allow for many matches where things just don't come off. Mainly, we need to find the right combination of forward players that maximizes the strengths of all; the dilemma when playing 4-3-3 has been finding the right combination of players to have both goalscorers and providers occupying the positions where they can do the most damage...starting Mane/Elia on the left has given us more pace and cutting edge, but also moves Tadic to the right where his crossing is subpar, which may be partially responsible for Pelle's lacklustre form. Playing Tadic on the left may improve that, but Long's the only attacking player who is apparently capable of starting on the right, and he's out/hasn't been a huge goal threat all year.

So as important as Morgan/Vic are, the biggest return might be Toby, given that it allows us to sidestep the above by playing 3-5-2.

 

1. Chelsea
2. Arsenal
3. Man City
4. Liverpool
5. Southampton
6. Man Utd
7. Spurs

 

Good point Chilco. Should have noticed that myself. It may not be likely, but it's not impossible.

As I keep banging on about, if you don't believe certain things are possible, you limit yourself from the very start. And Saints supporters ambitions are so limited, even when the club is now seriously making a bid for great times, like never before. Thankfully, it is now down to the last two or three stragglers who can't simply enjoy the ride, win or lose. Everybody else is on board.

But I must take a look at myself for missing the lack of 1st and 2nd options.

 

Could also be that we're closer to 10th than we are to 1st, and thus both options can be sensibly omitted for this year.

 

April 1978 springs to mind. Saints vs Spurs at The Dell, the drabbest 0-0 you ever did see, and both sides duly went up. Had we beaten Spurs, there were so many of them crammed into The Dell that there would almost certainly have been a riot.

 

And not to mention the Skates away to WBA in 2005

My mate was there and said it was embarrassing. Pompey players just knocking the ball to the half way line when they got it and not to mention the pass from Kanu when through on goal.

 

That was a joke, but I got over it quite quickly as even if they won, we still would of went down cos we didn't win our game.

 

True. Dare to imagine what that would have been like had we won?.. we were leading at one point too.

 

We'd probably still be as bitter as some Pompey fans are now

Or as some (older than me) Saints fans are about a certain ex Everton player...

 

OI!