Saints travel to Carrow Road to take on the Canaries who with a new manager in place and buoyed by a first win of the season at Brentford will be hoping to now win in front of their own fans and potentially lift themselves off the bottom of the table.

Two week ago Dean Smith was in Southampton leading his then club Aston Villa at St Mary's and the subsequent 1-0 defeat saw him sacked soon after, ironically the following day, Norwich went to Brentford and won and manager Daniel Farke was sacked, football is a funny game as they say.

Now we meet up again with Dean Smith and both teams will fancy their chances of a win for different reasons, the Canaries because they have a new manager and that elusive win under their belts and Saints because they know a win at Carrow Road could see them end the day in the top 10.

The worry for Saints is that Norwich are on a high, new manager, win under their belts and a crowd behind them who will now have hope and will be loud and boisterous.

But underneath all that it is still the same Norwich City team that lost 8 of it's previous 10 games and was rock bottom ahead of that win against Brentford, yes their will be motivation , but apart from the adrenalin rush, Saints are the better side and a side in form, we have to do what we have done so well for the best part of the season and that is keep it tight at the back and take at least one chance in the game preferably more.

Slowly but surely Ralph Hasenhuttl has learnt from the mistakes of last season and built on the foundations he has laid and now we have a squad that can take a step forward again.

Norwich 's problem this season has been at both ends of the field, that might seem a little obvious given that they are rock bottom, but they are the division's lowest scorers with only 5 goals in 11 games and the worst defence with a whopping 26 conceded, although most of those have been away with only 10 at home.

Dean Smith goes into this game knows he has a hard task ahead and for this game all he has in his favour is that burst of energy that comes from putting a new manager in charge, that can sometimes fire a side up.

We have to make sure it doesn't and from that perspective exploit their enthusiasm and hit them where it hurts, that is what happened on our last visit when it was the first game after the resumption of football, they could have been 2-0 up in the first 10 minutes after some poor defending by us, but they didn't take their chances and we won comfortably.

We have to make sure that we don't let them have any sitters this time and don't give them a chance to get up a head of steam and a lead to protect.

Teemu Pukki is obviously the dangerman, he has scored 3 of their 5 goals and last season he scored 26 of their 59 goals in the Championship, Emiliano Buendia weighed in with 15 , highlighting how much they relied on just two players to get all their goal, ironically it was Dean Smith who bought Buendia in the summer for Aston Villa leaving them very short of firepower after Pukki.

But Ralph Hasenhuttl has to concentrate on the strengths of his own team and on paper we are a far stronger squad, they sold a key player in the summer and have not replaced him, we hshowed last season we had a good starting XI and now we are showing that we have built the squad up.

Ralph goes into this game with a virtual full squad to choose from and more pleasingly players chomping at the bit to get in the starting line up, last season too often we had kids on the bench, this season is different.

I don't expect a much different side than the one that Dean Smith saw cost him his job a fortnight ago, that essentially our best XI out there on the pitch, but it is far from a team with all its players guaranteed a place in the starting line up, Nathan Redmond is back and he could replace Moi Elyounoussi for instance and there are several other players who could justly claim they are worth a start, Lyanco & Perraud in defence, Diallo in the centre of midfield, Broja up front, not to mention the likes of Djenepo & Theo Walcott all of whom can contribute if needed and Nathan Tella who is surely due a chance and could well earn a starting place based on what we saw last season.

This is why we have genuine cause for optimism this season, we have a squad not a team and that is what is needed when you are playing teams like Norwich, their starting XI is not brilliant, but it can raise itself sometimes, but they don't have the options off the bench, that was the case for us last season, but things have changed.

So Saints have to tame the Canaries early bluster, keep it tight and then put them to the sword, Che Adams is on a high after scoring for Scotland and is in form, Adam Armstrong having scored the winner against Villa will be keen to turn this into a scoring run and Armando Broja is going to be a big player, perhaps not with us.

We should win this game, but many sides have fallen to a shock defeat just when they thought they were odds on favourites, we have to guard against complacency, we have moved ourselves up the table through hard work and eradicating a lot of the lapses in concentration that cost us dearly in past seasons, we have to keep doing that again at Carrow Road.

Photo: Action Images

WestSussexSaint added 13:04 - Nov 19 I would like and expect to see Che McAdams and Stuart Armstrong in the starting XI after their performances for Scotland. Che in particular seems to have hit a goal scoring streak which we have seen in the past from him so need to exploit that for as long as it continues. I expect Adam Armstrong to start alongside Che. At the back I would like to see Tino given an extended break after withdrawing from the England U21s. He looked jaded against Villa and while physically I’m sure he is okay to play, he is only a teenager still so Ralph needs to protect him. We have good full back options so I don’t see dropping Tino to the bench as weakening the team.

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Colburn added 13:52 - Nov 19 I agree it wouldn't be a bad idea to give Livramento another week off, he was starting to look a bit weary against Villa and maybe should have been withdrawn. Expecting to see Adams and Armstrong starting upfront but not sure that Stuey Armstrong will start after hearing Ralph's press conference where he alluded to the level of competition for those places. I expect to see Redmond and Elyonoussi behind them, don't want to make too many changes but Redmond is ex Norwich so will feel confident of finally getting on the score sheet tomorrow. I just hope if he starts with Walcott, that he actually performs, because he hasn't so far this season and it blocks the pathway forward for Tella, who should be getting more game time after coming in and bringing a threat which no other players bring. Another must win for me, then it's fair to say we've had a good start to the season with the pressure off somewhat for the December run. Another draw or loss and we'll be looking at 3 scraped one nil wins against poor sides and so an average start. Would be nice to see a few goals this time if we win and if so, I think it's fair to say that Ralph has turned things around for a third time and deserves credit for doing so. This doesn't make previous calls for a change a knee jerk reaction or short sighted, a change would have been fair given the glaring stats, however a win tomorrow and he deserves the full backing of all Saints fans for the foreseeable future.

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Peterx added 18:50 - Nov 19 Good chance for a win and i've got a good feeling that the goals from AA are going to start flying in at higher volumes soon. A draw away would not be the worst result though. I would like to see the same starting line-up against Villa but Redders for Ely. Not that Ely is playing badly but I think Redders and Armstrong who are both good at bringing the ball forward will cause issues with a Norwich defence that can be pulled apart by runners.

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felly1 added 21:37 - Nov 19 McCarthy, Kwp, Perrau, Bednarek , Salisu, Jwp, Romeu, Redmond, Elyonoussi, Adam's, Armstrong. Tino needs a rest and should be benched.
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underweststand added 10:32 - Nov 20 The sort of " stupid game " against an out-of-form side in the drop zone that has often caused problems for Saints in the past. I expect to see a few starting changes as those B team players who are looking to impress shouldn't fail against the bottom side. Hopefully 3 points for Saints and a good goal tally would be even more convincing.
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