The9

Yep, that potential one additional point could make all the difference with 6 games to go! FWIW as it stands, us and Liverpool can still mathematically win the League, but Spurs can't.

That's what I mean though, by then things had settled down a lot, but it's daft to suggest there was no reason to think we might get relegated. Even with the squad we've got it only takes a bad run of injuries in key positions to cause a load of defeats, the margins are tight.

You could argue it around the end of July, new manager, core of the side having left, Tadic and Pelle pretty much unknown quantities the only signings and worries even more were going, but by the start of the season it was clear we could put 11 people on a pitch without it being likely we'd be one of the worst 3 in the league. And then Schneiderlin was named for the Liverpool match and that removed more of that concern. But at some points during the close season you could argue that there was No guarantee the players you mentioned would still be there Some of them (Ward-Prowse) might not be up to standard We hadn't spent £60m anyway International players are no particular indication of quality (Forren, Gardos) Teams may well have spent £60m and been relegated - especially if they've sold more. Add to that that Koeman may have been misled to the scale of the sales and MIGHT have been considering his position, and also that there was no guarantee he would be successful either based on his experiences at Valencia, and you have all the elements for concern about a relegation season. Just for the record though, no-one had the foggiest that we were going to get relegated in 2004/5 until we stepped on the pitch on the opening day and were awful at Villa, so it's not like there have to be major areas of concern. All you need is your signings not working out to change the atmosphere and a winning mentality is easily lost.

I watched it in Wessex Lane as a freshly-recruited-to-Saints' cause student, we ran a telly out of someone's window and put it on a chair on the grass outside, and had a 20-a-side kickabout on the not-very flat piece of grass next to the railway line at half-time (with the owner of the tv particularly concerned as one of the many slopes ran towards it and a lot of the people watching were drunk and not footballers to begin with). Back when the European Cup was still a proper cup, and all that.

When Saturday Comes has nicely captured his hypocrisy: "Harry Redknapp has resurfaced with various complaints about his departure from QPR. One of those was that "the club were in the papers every day... that got on my nerves". You could see how that would be distressing for a Sun columnist like Harry".

Well, that's few million quid in prize money from the difference between coming 5th and 7th, and potentially the difference between the Europa League Group stages and not qualifying for Europe taken care of. Bloody good job you're not in charge, we haven't got to where we are by just ignoring the possible increments of improvement.

I think Hull are most likely to go, QPR still seem to lose too many despite noticeable improvements recently, and either Leicester or Burnley will join them. If Sunderland carry on in their current vein they could get caught out too, but Villa could shoot Sherwood tomorrow and it wouldn't make the blindest bit of difference provided they don't think defending with 9 players at all times is the way to stay up - they're a lower midtable side who've been hampered by outright idiocy for over a year. Championship now looking like Bournemouth, Norwich and I'd love to see Brentford sneak in through the Play-Offs, but more likely to be the winners of a Derby v Boro final. Obviously this changes every ten minutes.

I'm usually quite a fan of Steven Davis, but he did show all the signs of being off the pace and some of his passes early on were awful - but as long as that's a blip, that's fine, and he and Schneiderlin both looked better with slightly tweaked roles and with JWP on the pitch. However, suggesting he was Man of the Match are the ramblings of a deluded mentalist, even in a match where few were outstanding, he was one of the few who could be immediately ruled out.

If you're on about his big reveal about the meltdown, everything he mentioned that had happened in the past (basically before July 26th) ties in with various other sources and circumstantial evidence - it was the assumptions about what was going to happen after Chambers was sold, which were guesswork because obviously the source from the Cortese era had left by then, that were mistaken - and even those were based on reasonable assumptions as of the end of July. His opinion of Forster is laughable though.

Any result today for either Manchester club could be promising for Saints. United win left City only 5 points ahead of us. City win left United only 6 points ahead with a much worse GD than City and more difficult fixtures. The draw moved both of them a point further clear, but meant only 2 points were added to our CL rivals not 3. As it is, City have nothing to play for, tangibly do not care less, and Pellegrini is doomed. If we can stay close enough to only need a result there on the last day we'll give it a hell of a go.

Villa (even at home), and visits to Spurs and Swansea could all take points off them. We only need to win one more than them over the next 5 matches to go there with the chance to beat them to come 4th (assuming Liverpool and Spurs finish below us). If we can win TWO more than them we might even go there only needing a draw.

One of my concerns was that he'd be living off his name and people were judging him on playing ability not managing. After 9 months I'm more than happy to accept that he's bloody great at both.

If we need a second defensive midfielder (I'd suggest we do), Alderweireld would be my choice too. He also gives us a bit of an attacking threat as the only player who can shoot...

I think both of them can play without the other, it depends what they're asked to do. Schneiderlin played second half without Wanyama without too many problems against Hull for a start.

I wish that was true, but I just think Tadic takes poor penalties. There doesn't seem to have been any waiting for keepers to commit to me, and the one against Chelsea was very much down the middle, which isn't where you put any penalty unless the keeper is completely gone. Courtois having got a foot to it suggests he just took another crap penalty - if he'd rolled it halfway down the other side of the goal, fair enough. But the others both went same side as the GK.

Agree with this bit. Though the use of "instinct" always annoys me, like a caveman running through on goal knows to wait for the keeper to commit...

Comical Crabbing re: Forster, not yet seen or heard one piece of evidence of this bad keeping either.

Not news to anyone over 35 but awesome nevertheless.

It's times like this I get annoyed that the Match Build-Up thread gets locked, when I've spent 3 days in an argument about how we don't need two defensive midfielders (albeit in the context that most sides won't attack like Burnley did - which they did, and we looked dodgy as a result even with both the gatekeepers on there).

Did anyone else struggle to pick a MoM for this? Didn't think Pelle did much different - though he was running about like a man possessed in the immediate run up to the penalty trying to make something happen, Ward-Prowse did ok and made me £75 but nothing majorly impactful, thought Elia made a difference with his spark when he came on, defence was ok but a little bit random (kept a CS though) and I thought both Yoshida and Bertrand were too negative on the ball, Alderweireld didn't play particularly well for him, Steven Davis had a bit of a mare and misplaced a ton of touches, Long put himself about but didn't do a lot with the ball, and Mane did ok without really driving at teams the way he has before. Having seen the Schneiderlin comment above, can't see it myself - no kind of shield for the first 10 minutes, though big improvement in the second half. Then again his role is a difficult one to spot and I'd had a LOT to drink today. Which left me with Kelvin for his vital stop at 0-0 and Fonte for looking the most reliable at the back on a day when we didn't look that solid.

Hmmm, I remain to be convinced by Sherwood. Literally anyone could have improved Villa on Lambert's efforts just by making them less defensive and stop them playing only on the counter, and they've got a mid-table squad that was dramatically underperforming before. As for having Pochettino's number - I think that's more to do with him knowing most of Tottenham's personnel very well - we saw a similar thing with Saints getting nullified by Spurs at WHL - if you know players inside out you have a very good idea of how to make life most difficult for them. Though it doesn't hurt when the manager has "a style" and no plan B. Stop Kane and you stop Spurs at the moment.

Against Everton, Marcus Bent.

I'd quite like some of them to follow it through, wouldn't have to worry about them again then.

It was an interesting exercise in being really frustrated in a team despite eventually winning comfortably and playing well within ourselves. It's no surprise we're losing games here and there when we find it SO difficult to create chances and we're so far off the pace - but some of our attacking decision-making is unbelievable - Long in the first minute not even getting a shot off, for instance. I thought the key (again) was the Wanyama change - but then I've been saying all week that there's no way we should be playing against Hull with 2 defensive midfielders, and we did, and looked awful (but I would say that). What was worrying was that we looked as defensively shaky with Wanyama/Schneiderlin together this week as we did against Burnley with Wanyama missing - I guess that comes down to changing the CB pairing though. And, in the end, clean sheet and comfortable win.

I'd rather we offered to loan them a bunch of kids or something that could actually help Saints AND is just a little bit patronising too... Offer them Josh Sims for a season or something, get himself some experience. FWIW I'd love to see them in the Prem for a season, great little trip to the Forest and we always beat them.