This upcoming weekend of Premier League action may be curtailed due to the F.A. Cup Semi-finals taking place at Wembley and although there are only six matches across four days, they are not to be considered any less important.
The first of these half dozen top flight clashes takes us to St Mary’s and a rare Friday night feast of football, as Southampton play host to Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp’s men will be looking to continue their title tilt on the South Coast.
However, they will go up against a Southampton side that have found their form at just the right time of the season and after picking up three wins from their last four outings, the Saints are looking up the table instead of over their shoulders.
While had it not been for the fact that they conceded a last minute goal to Manchester United last month, they would have managed to pick up a highly impressive 10 league points from the last 12 on offer.
At the same time though, there will be few complaints at the fact that they have picked up nine instead and three of those came in what was labelled as a relegation ‘Six-Pointer’ at The AMEX Stadium last weekend.
That win could prove crucial come the end of the campaign and if they can find one or two more in these next few weeks, then they will manage to assure themselves of Premier League survival well before the final day of proceedings.
Whether they can find a win against a high-flying Liverpool side remains to be seen, especially as the Reds seem to have the ability to grind out results when it matters most, and this was certainly evident last Sunday.
Their clash with Tottenham at Anfield was arguably the last of the major hurdles that they will have to clear if they are to go on and capture a first ever Premier League title, while they could not have won in more dramatic circumstances.
In a game that ebbed and flowed, it could have quite as easily been Tottenham that snatched a win late on. However, it was Liverpool through a combination of Mohamed Salah and poor goalkeeping from Hugo Lloris that led to them snatching a late winner.
Liverpool will feel that lady luck is on their side and even though that they have not been playing at their brilliant best, they have been managing to earn these all-important wins. At the same time, this is something that comes with an element of risk.
That of course being that your luck will always run out in the end, the question is whether Liverpool’s will run out at the worst possible time and it could be something that takes place at the start of this weekend.
However, every time they are asked a question by Manchester City, they seem to have an answer and therefore you would have to believe that they will have enough at their disposal to pick up all three points on Friday night. A win that adds another twist to the title race.