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 !

Photo: Action Images

bigmart added 08:53 - Nov 26 It really **cks me off when I hear so many people slagging off our players. If they're wearing the red and white of Saints, they should be supported and encouraged. In my ideal world, Long will pop one in, assisted by Tadic, Redmond will score, assisted by Long and then Tadic gets one himself, assisted by Redmond. Gabbiadini will get the 4th and Austin will round it off to make 5. 9th here we come, I can only hope and dream.

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patred added 09:24 - Nov 26 It's obvious that we are going to be busy during the Jan transfer window. Who drives this depends on results such as this one. Lose to Everton, and you can be sure we will be replacing the manager. If that is left till then, our target players will be chosen by Reed, and the new manager will have no time to make an input. He'll be expected to get on with it, no matter how suited, or ill suited those players are. Which is exactly what happened with the last 2 managers. We cannot flap about with managerial targets at the time the squad needs improving, and to be fair, the new bloke deserves a say in the shape of the squad. Win lose, or draw today should not be the reason Pellegrino goes, Reed should know exactly what the present manager offers the squad. If they think he is the man, then back him publicly, don't let all the rumours go unanswered. Alternatively if they have no confidence in him they should waste no time in replacing him. Dithering about got us this manager and the previous one. LEARN BY IT

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IanRC added 15:51 - Nov 26 Hopefully today will have shut up some of the JWP haters on here but I doubt it.
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underweststand added 16:21 - Nov 26 It's Everton who are busted ! Feel sorry for Unsworth who was a dedicated Everton player, but his management time is over and we can only wish good luck to their new manager 'cos he'll need it. A good result today-we could have had 4 by HT, but Man.City won't be so generous on Wednesday.
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