SaintPete

I understand all of this, however we do have a choice in not selling him to Liverpool. I would be very surprised if much bigger clubs than Liverpool aren't interested in VVD and also be surprised if Liverpool are the height of VVD's ambitions anyway. Don't sell to Liverpool!

I've not been on Saints Web for a fair while, so apologies in advance if this has been covered many times before. I wanted to say something before (what seems like) the inevitable happens ... I've not been following the transfer speculation up until now, but I see today that Liverpool are odds on favourites to sign VVD. Can we as fans have a say in stopping this from happening? I understand that we might struggle to keep hold of a player of VVD's quality but it would be an absolute farce that we would sell yet another player to Liverpool and our best player to them two years in a row. I can't recall any club ever selling as many players to the same side (and in the same division to boot). This constant selling of our players to Liverpool is turning us from a well respected team into a laughing stock and it is miserable to see as a fan. In my humble opinion, if the board even countenance selling VVD to Liverpool it shows a complete contempt for the fans. Last season we finished above Liverpool and yet couldn't wait to sell them our best player, hastily in a cut price deal while we didn't have a manager to complain. Why strengthen your rivals (at the time) while weakening yourselves? Even this season Liverpool have looked decidedly average without (their player of the season) Mane. What's the point in supporting a team if you're just acting as a feeder team for another club in the same division? A club who openly mocked us for selling them some players a few seasons ago. Enough is enough, I say we vote with our feet and threaten a walk out if VVD ends up at Liverpool this or any season.

If referees hadn't made "mistakes" we'd have finished 3rd :-) http://www.90min.com/posts/3260946-analysis-reveals-arsenal-would-have-won-premier-league-league-if-refs-did-their-jobs-properly?a_aid=35560

So had the second penalty appeal (against Allen) been given, would it have been a red card (assuming a fair referee)?

Yep, there'd be no chance of the top four if we find ourselves three points off fourth with 14 games to go

I tried to put £30 on at 100/1 when I saw how easily we were beating Newcastle in the third game of the season. It wouldn't let me while the game was in-play. After that game the odds dropped to 50-1. I decided I'd wait for the odds to lengthen a bit again before placing the bet, but they just kept dropping and dropping! Missed the boat

Don't really understand this mentality. I'll be gutted if we don't make the Champions League. We've shown we're good enough over 22 games, why not over 38? Will we ever have a better chance?

So somewhere between 7 and 18 points then ... or maybe even 0

Better for City to win this one and then drop points against the likes of Burnley!

Agree with everything else you say and a football season is too short to allow for luck to properly even itself out but luck does even itself out over time. If you toss a fair coin a million times then there's a 67% chance you'll get between 499,500 and 500,500 heads. Also, while tossing a coin an 11th time after it being heads 10 times is indeed 50:50, getting 10 heads in a row in the first place is only a 0.098% chance. Even getting 1 head and 9 tails is only a 1% chance and 2 heads and 8 tails a 4% chance. I'm fun at parties

It seems to have cut out my 'tabs' that made that table more readable The numbers after the W, L, D are the current positions of the teams played in those games, the second last number is the average (current) position of the opposition, the last number is the average current position of the opposition played in 2015 (relevant as it shows which teams have had tougher second round fixtures) As a summary: Saints' opposition's average current league position over the last six games is 7.8 Liverpool's is 13.7 Man City's is 15.5 Chelsea's is 7.7 Arsenal's is 9.7 Spurs' is 11.7

Saints are top of the form table in the last six games (which is an amazing achievement in itself). What's even more impressive is that we're top of the form table having played some really tough fixtures. I was wondering whether our fixtures were the worst of anyone's in the last six games so geekly spent the last half hour looking into the current position of the teams that each team had played and using those to work out an average league position of the six teams played. Using this criteria, it turns out we had the second most difficult set of fixtures over the winter period but still came out on top. Chelsea had the toughest fixtures by a small margin. Liverpool are just behind us in the form table but they had the second easiest Christmas fixtures in the whole division. We've had a fair share of injuries but still been winning games against tough opposition. Awesome stuff Saints! POS CLUB RANK LAST 6 MATCHES PTS CURR LEAG POS OF OP AVG AVG 2015 1 Southampton W W D W W W 16 13, 12, 1, 6, 4, 11 7.8 7.0 2 Liverpool D W W D W W 14 6, 17, 9, 20, 16, 14 13.7 15.0 3 Man City W W W D W D 14 20, 12, 15, 17, 16, 13 15.5 15.3 4 Chelsea W W D L W W 13 10, 8, 3, 5, 11, 9 7.7 8.3 5 Arsenal W D W W L W 13 11, 7, 19, 8, 3, 10 9.7 6.5 6 Spurs W W D W L W 13 17, 20, 4, 1, 12, 16 11.7 9.7 7 Stoke L W W D L W 10 1, 13, 15, 4, 6, 20 9.8 10.0 8 Man Utd D W D D L W 9 14, 11, 5, 10, 3, 19 10.3 10.7 9 Crystal Palace L L D D W W 8 2, 3, 19, 14, 5, 17 10.0 12.0 10 Swansea W W L D D L 8 18, 14, 7, 19, 8, 1 11.2 9.3 11 West Brom W L L L D W 7 14, 19, 2, 10, 8, 18 11.8 13.0 12 Leicester L L W D W L 7 8, 5, 18, 7, 14, 10 10.3 10.3 13 West Ham D W L L D D 6 16, 20, 1, 6, 8, 9 10.0 8.5 14 Hull L L W L W L 6 1, 9, 16, 20, 13, 15 12.3 14.0 15 Burnley L L D D W L 5 5, 7, 2, 11, 19, 12 9.3 14.0 16 QPR W L D D L L 5 15, 6, 12, 9, 17, 4 10.5 10.0 17 Everton W L L L L D 4 19, 3, 10, 11, 18, 2 10.5 10.0 18 Newcastle L L W D L L 4 16, 4, 13, 17, 1, 3 9.0 7.0 19 Sunderland W L D L L L 4 11, 18, 14, 2, 7, 5 9.5 4.7 20 Aston Villa D L D D L L 3 4, 9, 16, 12, 20, 7 11.3 13.0

Just realised it's 16 points from our last 6 games (or 16 from our last 7 games), not 19 from 7, but the main point stands!

I don't get to every game but I've got a pact with a Palace supporting friend that we'll go to all the Saints Palace matches (started when we were both in the Championship). Since then the league results have been H 2-0, A 2-0, H 2-0, A 1-0, A 3-1. They haven't beaten us in the league for years and their only goal against us in the last five games was when we were 3-0 up already. Every game has been pretty comfortable for us. Think we're a bit of a bogey team for them. Admittedly we did lose in the league cup during that time but it was pretty much a reserve team game when we were both in the Championship. We've got a much stronger squad now. Can see them resting players too.

As others have pointed out we're doing pretty well without him scoring. We've got 19 points from the last 7 games and 3 of those games have been against top 4 contenders where goals are going to be at a premium. He's been a key component. The partnership with Mane was just starting to take shape before the AFCON. Obviously it's a worry if he gets injured, but if not he's doing just fine.