Saints take on Chelsea on Saturday knowing that if the Blues win then they will have their sights on the top five, but a defeat will leave them floundering in mid table.

The Premier League is tightly packed together at the moment, the ten clubs starting with Manchester united in 5th and ending at West Bromwich Albion in 14th are separated by only 9 points.

Chelsea of course have had a terrible season by their standards sitting in 12th with 33 points, yet in recent weeks they have put a run together that has suggested that they have put the disastrous form of the first four months of the season behind them.

They have not lost a Premier League game since their 2-1 defeat at Leicester City on the 14th December, a run of 10 League games unbeaten, a fact that has gone largely noticed due to the fact that with 6 of these games being draws and only 4 wins the points total has not been enough to propel them right up the league, in comparison in the same period Saints have won only 1 more point than Chelsea.

Of course both club's ten game spells have run different paths, the first half of Saints's was abysmal with the second half being brilliant, whilst Chelsea's has been consistent.

Also Saints have achieved their with some great results against clubs around them, whilst Chelsea have in the main not played the top six, a win at Arsenal was the exception and 2 draws against Manchester United, but apart from that the other 7 games have been against lower opposition, indeed the other 3 Premier League wins in that period have been against relegation zone clubs Newcastle and Sunderland with a win at the free falling Crystal Palace the other.

But Chelsea have quietly got an unbeaten run together and will now be looking to turn those draws into wins and perhaps propel themselves up into the top five, it is perhaps a bit much to ask them to overturn a 14 point deficit and overtake Manchester City in fourth, but they will not consider the 8 point gap between themselves and United insurmountable and a win at Saints would bring them within four points of us.

So Saints job against Chelsea is simple at worst to make sure that they do not start winning, every failure to take three points makes their task that much harder and at best to beat them and leave them trailing in our wake with little chance of a tilt at the top five.

But they should not be underestimated, good teams do not become bad ones overnight and Chelsea have some outstanding players, but to counterbalance that they are a club who are in limbo, they do not know who will be manager next season and the Premier League is not a priority, as they cannot get into the top four this term they are more concerned about trying to win the Champions League or at least the FA Cup to ensure European competition next season even if it is only the Europa League.

So Saints can go into this game with confidence, Chelsea are a team able to raise themselves for the big occasion, but perhaps not for the lesser clubs as we have seen in their list o draws in this unbeaten run, they have the skill and the talent, but they do not have the motivation in the League at the moment, but that doesn't mean that they should not be treated with the utmost respect, they have the capabilities to beat anyone on their day.

So Saints need to nip the Chelsea revival in the bud and in doing so take another big step themselves towards a top five finish.

Photo: Action Images

bstokesaint added 13:14 - Feb 23 Good teams don't become bad overnight, but likewise teams that get beaten as easily as they have done in the past few months, clearly still have their weaknesses. I think stats are too easily manipulated to suit. 6 draws is 6 points from a possible 18, which really isn't that impressive. To me it just shows that the manager has been concentrating on keeping it tigher at the back and hoping the creative players upfront do their job. I think we have enough to really trouble their defence. Plus they'll have one eye on that second round CL tie. It doesn't matter how good they do from now on in the league, it's hard to see them making the top 4, so it's really all about the CL.

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IWOZTHERE added 13:38 - Feb 23 I hope Ron recognises that, despite the results, we've not been that convincing in the last couple of games. System needs a 'tweak', perhaps back to how we were playing at the start of this run.
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BoondockSaint added 13:39 - Feb 23 They were never that bad-it was just Costa and his pals getting Jose sacked because he didn't treat them like the prima donnas they are. Now the same crew are playing harder to say "See, it wasn't us. We just needed a new manager." The rest of the team are now playing harder to keep their jobs with the next manager They are aiming for Champions League-that's where the money is. But if they don't make it, Abramovich will be looking at the roster to see who cost him money. He may have deep pockets, but now one likes losing money.

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Bettwsresident added 15:44 - Feb 23 IWOZTHERE, I agree in part, but the last 2 games were away to an improving Swansea and a backs to the wall defensive effort against West Ham (albeit we have 2 good chances to score a 2nd). I have high hopes for Saturday and think the Betfair odds are wrong with the win for Chelsea the marginal favourite, suffice to say it has been laid! Charlie to start please.
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SaintBrock added 10:02 - Feb 24 We can't score goals right now and this is my and hopefully Ronald Koeman main concern. It's all very fine boasting about our run of clean sheets but no way are we going to beat Chelsea 1-0, they are far too lively up front to be denied for ever and if their front players click then watch out. If Chelsea score first we will draw at best and even that might be beyond us but it is easy to see our defenders going flaky if their clean-sheet record is broken early on and panic sets in. 0-3 is quite possible.

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warrens76 added 11:09 - Feb 25 Iwoz and SB are both correct, we simply do not bury enough teams, our poor conversion ratio with the many chances we have is still a cause for concern three years on..also when we start slowing the play down we do ourselves no attacking favours..
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