Sam Allardyce has spoken of how he sees Saints clash with West Ham United at Upton Park on Saturday as a six pointer.

It seems strange for the Hammers manager to be considering this as a must win game for his side seeing as the Hammersare very happy sitting 8th in the table with 11 points, but Allardyce knows from his years of figting relegation with Bolton Wanderers that you need to get the points on the door as soon as possible and give yourself a psycological boost above the other contenders for the drop.

He knows that beating sides like Saints at this point in the season is the difference in the New Year between sitting comfortably in mid table, not looking over your shoulders and having a few squaky bum moments later in the season.

But most importantly he knows that 14 points after only 8 games, the total that the Hammers would be on if they are triumphant against Saints is a great position to be in so early in the season, if Saints are beaten they would be lucky to reach that total by Xmas.

But Allardyce will also know that defeat for his team could drag them into the relegation dog fight, it would leave Saints only 4 points behind West Ham and with the London sides next three games after being Wigan away, Man City at home and  Newcastle away not to mention a trip to Spurs and a home game against United at the end of November, Allardyce is looking at a spell from hell as Saints endured at the start of the season, he knows this will make or break the Hammers, beat Saints and they can still be in mid table come December as long as they pick up the odd point or two, lose and they could get dragged down and sometimes the vortex sucks you down and drags you under just at the moment you think you are safe.

So yes for Sam and indeed for Nigel its a six pointer must win game, but for Saints at least every game is must win till we pass that 40 point mark.      

Photo: Action Images

richardmdcooper added 13:42 - Oct 16 I fancy us to win this. We're the better side as we proved last season. They've had a much easier fixture list than us. I personally would go 4-4-2 - gazziniga, cline, fonte, hooiveld, fox, puncheon, schneiderlin, davis, lallana, srl, j-rod
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saintgus added 15:48 - Oct 16 Much will depend on the aerial battle with Andy Carroll, we might just make it to easy for him as per our previous away games this season
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Whatsforpud added 18:12 - Oct 16 Passing the 40 point mark seems an awful way off when we have only 4 of them at mid-October!
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slynch added 00:37 - Oct 17 Carroll will sit between the defence and the midfield and be totally unmarked. The wingers will cut inside and wonder where all the the defenders went. Hooiveld will have to do some desperate lunging to stop unmarked midfielders from scoring from free shots from the edge of the box. The attack will score two goals with a bit of luck and we will lose 3 - 2. Or has something changed???

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SingaporeSaint added 03:33 - Oct 17 Sensible statement from Allardyce - will focus the mind of his players and directors that this is a tough league and until they are established to focus on the bottom rather than the top. If we had 11 points I fear I'd be hearing 'Europe' comments. I do hope those in charge of our club realise that we need a battle for survival spirit, which we havent seen as yet - to compete in every area of the pitch and grind out points. W Ham finished the season like a runaway train - they have improved over the summer in signing some quality first team players and have an even more aggressive dominant C Forward than last year. This is a massive test for us, we need a tighter 4 in midfield but of course C Back is the biggest concern. W Ham will put at least 30 balls in the box over 90 mins.. I'd play Yoshida at C Back as I think he is our best central defender - Hooiveld is tall in stature but looks woefully short of being a top class defender and Fonte needs to step up his concentration. Gazza needs to dominate the first 8 yards and then we need to get players around Carroll to stop him winning clean ball. Expect Lambert to defend corners.. Massive physical test for us.

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