Prediction League: A trip to our bogey ground

Sports fans are not a rational bunch. Sometimes results can't be explained merely by one team being better than another or a stroke of luck. Sometimes there are strange and mysterious forces at work.

Be crap for long enough in baseball and someone will dream up a curse. The curse of the bambino afflicted the red sox for almost a century. The curse of the billy goat still haunts the cubs. Southampton's poor start to life at St Mary's was even the work of a nefarious curse.

The story is that some dirty skate contractors buried a pompey shirt under the Northam end. When our home form got to be worryingly bad a pagan witch doctor had to be called in, only then could we win our first game in our new home.

Goodison is not a happy hunting ground for Saints. It's been 18 years since our last victory there, enough to have many a fan looking for their lucky pants this morning.

But the charmed underwear might not be needed. Toffee fans are fed up of seeing their team lose at home and are voicing their displeasure at the gaffer. A long cup run is causing a fixture pile up, a Merseyside derby and FA cup semi within the next 7 days will be prioritised. Add to that knocks to Lukaku and Barkley and a suspension for McCarthy.

Saints have never had a better chance to end the hoo doo.

To the predictions:

Bad news. Andros Townsend's meaningless howitzer at the end of the Newcastle game has given Paul "dirty skate" Merson a 3 pointer. Connor also got a correct score so maintains his lead. Everyone else gets the one point.

*Latecomers to the league

Lawro: 2-1
"Southampton easily despatched Newcastle last week but you cannot really use that as a yardstick because this will be a lot tougher for them."
Merse: 2-2
"If he has the courage to rest all the players he needs for next week, then they lose this game 3-1, but if he plays a full-strength side then I see a 2-1 home win."
Connor: 1-1
"This is one we could really do with winning if we want European football again. However, they comprehensively beat us earlier this season and have a fairly decent record against Saints in recent years. But they've been fairly inconsistent this season. Anyway, enough waffle, I'll say 1-1."
Tommy: 2-3
"I'll say that Saints go down 2 goals in the first half from Lukaku, only to see Graziano Pellè net a second half hat-trick. In all seriousness though, as Connor said, this game is huge for Europe, and 3 points will go a long way. 3-2 Saints!"
Dan: 2-3
"Agree - Must-win for Europa reasons. Think we will too - 3-2 to us. We were poor earlier in the season but are looking good now."
George: 2-1
"Depends if we can cut the supply to Romelu Lukaku, Ross Barkley and Gerard Deulofeu.
I'm gonna say 2-1. Long to score."
Paul: 1-2
"2-1 to Saints. Everton are limping a bit at the moment, and whilst we are incredibly inconsistent, I think we should start to look stronger in attack, with some more options coming in towards the end of the season."
Jake: 1-1
"1-1. Everton are poor at home but just worry we won't win at Everton yet again!"
Will: 1-3
"Everton have two big games this week and this isn't one of them. I do worry about our away form."