In fairness to Ivan Juric he has slowly stopped the goals leaking in the last 3 games and his side have put in 3 spirited performances, so after the draw with Crystal Palace, can Juric build on that for the trip to Spurs ?

Relatively speaking Saints are in one of their best runs of the season in terms of conceding goals, only 6 conceded in the last 3 games and two of those were penalties, one extremely dodgy, in the game against Liverpool, compare that to the 11 shipped in the 3 games prior to that trip to Anfield and it does at least give us hope that we can get the two points needed to avoid our unwanted record.

But next up is Tottenham Hotspur a team of fast track bullies and trip to them often end in defeat.

Their is hope though and Spurs are having a dreadful season by their perceived standards, they go into the weekend sitting in 14th place with only 34 points, in another season they might have been looking over their shoulders at the bottom 3, but not this one.

Any hopes of European competition though are long gone, at least in the Premier League, they do however have a chance if they can win the Europa League and the fact that they have a home game against Eintracht Frankfurt only 4 days after our visit could offer us hope that they will perhaps rest a few players.

Whispers in the North London rumour mill suggest that Ange Postecoglou could drop 3 key members of his team, even though he does have several players out for the visit of Saints, the likes of Micky Van de Ven, Son Heung-min and James Maddison are being tipped to be rested and the manager has already confirmed in his press conference that he will be making some changes.

Spurs home form has not been great, they have won just 5 Premier League games, drawn another 3 and lost 7, they don't have trouble scoring goals, the 30 scored in those 15 games highlights their attacking prowess, only Liverpool & Manchester City have scored more at home, but the 26 conceded at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, is the 2nd worst of all the top 14 clubs and even Everton blow them have conceded less.

So the stats do offer us hope as we go into the games, so the question is can Ivan Juric build on the progress made in the Crystal Palace game.

The key will not to tinker too much with the starting line up against the Eagles, the back 3/5 looked pretty solid after a shaky start and the central midfield were hard working and paved the way for the glorious draw.

The only two positions that should be under review are the two attacking ones, Tall Paul Onuachu scored a decent goal against Palace and worked hard, but he was often out of the game and away at Tottenham we cannot afford to carry any passengers.

Likewise Kamaldeen Sulemana, he made some promising runs, but there was no end product, Ivan Juric needs to consider whether one or both of them should be dropped for the trip to Tottenham.

Cameron Archer & Tyler Dibling would be the two obvious candidates, but if we want to get off to a strong start then we could also consider restoring Joe Aribo to the midfield or perhaps bringing in Welington at left back and using Ryan Manning in a more advanced position.

I won't even insult those players that Juric seems to have now ostracised completely by suggesting that they should be in the starting line up or even the squad, take a bow Lallana, Taylor, Groenbaek, Bella-Kotcap & Fraser.

So there are a few rays of hope for the travelling Saints fans that after the disappointment of that late equaliser on Wednesday that cost us overtaking that points record, that this could be the game that we could do it in.

Unlikely if we take the name Tottenham Hotspur alone, but based on their trials and tribulations this season, you never know.

All Photos Via Reuters

Bowlercow added 15:09 - Apr 5 A couple of forced changes.Aribo to replace Downes and Archer to replace Tall Paul If he fiddles with more than that he'll deserve to get beat Long time since we won away to Spuds so perhaps it's due
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underweststand added 15:21 - Apr 5 A fixture I always hate, (in fact Spurs as a club - fall into the same category for me) especially as I once knew a fellow (although Soton-born) always boasted how great Spurs were - despite them failing to win anything in over 30 years, and the fact that - with rare exception - Spurs have screwed us with almost every transfer deal we've made with them over the 60 years. OK rant over, how tough it must be for their fans in their Billion £ound stadium, watching their side wallow in the bottom half of the table (like many other mediocre sides) and are now experiencing what life is really like - without their beloved Harry Kane. Ivan Juric is (of course) on a hiding to nothing, and will be glad if he has one of his two genuine strikers fit enough to choose from. It matters little who chooses for the back line, and without the services of those players who are either; injured / suspended or, (as you pointed out Nick)..he has chosen to ignore, the team will almost picks itself. As we are awaiting the inevitable moment when we are mathematically relegated, it might be time to consider giving some minutes to one or two of our promising U21 lads who have shown up so well since the New Year. Whatever else happens, an appearance in a Prem. game (regardless of the eventual result) might look good on their CV. If we come away with any reward from this fixture it will make relegation a little less painful for me during the short summer before we start to play Championship football.

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underweststand added 08:17 - Apr 6 P.S. (to above)..one thing that we can be sure of ....IF Saints get a win, (or even a creditable draw), Daniel Levy is likely to finally sack Ange Postecoglou and then eat a goodly portion of humble pie, by reluctantly re-employing Mauricio Pochettino (their previously ALMOST most successful manager), and start all over again. IF ...Tyler Dibling were to score against Spurs... the outcome would be fairly predictable.

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Flamingbankers added 09:15 - Apr 6 " A couple of forced changes.Aribo to replace Downes and Archer to replace Tall Paul If he fiddles with more than that he'll deserve to get beat Long time since we won away to Spuds so perhaps it's due" I'd agree with Bowlercow but hoping Juric will apply commonsense is a bit like hoping we'll stay up this season.
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