Nordic Saint

It's not going to happen.

If it even gets off the ground, it will go the same way as Kerry Packer's cricket circus. The only question would be whether it would last 1 year or 2. The teams stupid enough to enter it would be heading for a big fall.

I went to watch Saints at Anfield 50 years ago and they were lobbing bricks at us even then. There was a narrow alleyway with high walls on the walk from the station and the local youths hid behind it and lobbed house bricks over the walls as you walked through.

Our defensive midfielders always are underappreciated by many of our fans. Wanyama, Reed and Hojbjerg were too. The transitional midfielders like Schneiderlin and Diallo tend to get more praise.

The bottom line is we only have one effective defensive midfielder in our squad, Romeu, and he's out injured. Both Diallo and Ward-Prowse would be fine if they had him alongside them. Could we buy another one? Defensive midfield is not the most glamorous of positions and they don't command big transfer fees as Spurs discovered when they bought Hojbjerg. Right now we could do with someone like Harrison Reed.

It looks like Hampshire will be top of the table after the opening matches, as they should go on and win this and they'll be the only team with maximum batting bonus points.

That's impressive. He hits the ball hard, usually gets it on target and some of his goals are quite spectacular. He's certainly a better finisher than Shane Long.

He's been brilliant so far tonight. That run to set up the 3rd goal, where he had 5 Wolves players all trying to stop him, reminded me of Channon at his absolute best about 50 years ago. Lingard's goals and assists could well clinch West Ham a Champions League place.

We could have scored 2 or 3 more goals in the last ten minutes. 4-2 or 5-2 would have been a fairer reflection of the game. Pope and the woodwork kept the scoreline down.

What a superb comeback that was. We've now done the double over a Burnley side that has been a bogey team for us in recent years, and Ings, who's back to his best, scored in both games. I'm looking forward to us finishing the season strongly with many more Ings goals.

Just watched dirty, cheating Leicester lose to Man City. They really are the worst team in the league for utilising the full array of 'dark arts'. It must be part of their training. What an obnoxious character Maddison is. He's one of the worst culprits. I want us to beat them even more now but we're going to need a very good refereee to avoid getting injuries and red cards.

Yes, but he nearly always hits it hard and gets it between the posts.

Adams is a great finisher. He doesn't often miss the target.

Is he a Pompey fan? All of his posts seem to be anti-Saints.

We've been drawn against them 10 times. Including replays we've played 15 FA Cup games against Man United and won one of them. Even though I was at Wembley in 1976 for that, I'm glad we didn't get drawn against them again. Leicester have been in 7 FA Cup semi-finals, the last one 39 years ago, so it really is a special occasion for their fans, many of whom have never seen their team in an FA Cup semi-final before.

West Ham have only been in 7 FA Cup semi-finals and they've won the cup 3 times. Manchester City have been in 14 and won the cup 6 times.

That was his best ever game in a Saints shirt. He has had good runs of form before but today he really was superb. Let's hope today has restored his confidence and we see him carry that form over into our remaining games. One of his problems in the past is that he's been afraid to shoot. I expect to see him looking to score more goals after that performance.

We've also been in 3 League Cup semi-finals. Surely, as we go into our 16th major semi-final, we are due to capitalise on another one at long last. I wonder if there is any other team that has been in so many semi-finals and only won 1 cup?

At least it wasn't 9-0.

Wasn't there a plan to get the B team playing exactly the same way as the first team so the players could slot right in when called upon? It looks like the plan has worked.

Long before he joined Spurs, Son had a trial with Portsmouth but they relected him. He obviously wasn't their level of player.

Goals v Saints: Giroud 8 Kane 8 Son 8 Lukaku 7 van Persie 7 We always seem to have problems with big, old style centre forwards, who can head the ball in at the near post Ron Davies v Man United. He scored 4 in one game at Old Trafford

That was a very entertaining games of football. Pity that 2nd Adams goal was offside as with a 5-3 scoreline, we'd have come away from it with heads held high. An excellent refereeing performance from Jon Moss too. With McCarthy in goal our defence understandably looked a bundle of nerves but we'll be fine against Brighton as Forster will be back in goal and he brings calmness and assuredness to the whole defence.

Forster has let in 1 goal in his last 6 games McCarthy has let in 23 goals in his last 6 games

Certainly more than enough for McCarthy to have let in another 6 or more goals to add to his tally.