Jack

First time at Villa park and it wasn’t a great experience. Trains only every 2 hours so it was heaving, and expensive. Decent beers in the city centre then a pretty miserable hour at Villa Park before getting the train home to avoid another 2 hour wait for the train. Rubbish. Was surprised by our performance and Villa’s to be fair. We were far worse than normal and they were far better.

Anyone else on the 10:17 from Southampton Central? The lads I’m going with are getting the train from London so I’ll be on my tod for the journey up. Would be good to meet for train beers on the way up if anyone fancies it

Right then. Diallo and Djenepo off at HT for me. Romeu and Stu on. Think we’ve got away with it to an extent

I get it in certain situations. But we’re nailed on to finish 8-14th. Cup should be the absolute priority

Nooooo what’s he playing at? Absolute car crash. We’ll lose this comfortably

Evening Standard reporting that Chelsea would let Broja (and the other Tino) go in the summer to fund other business. Maybe we need to encourage him to play shit for the rest of the season to keep the cost down

Ralph’s said in the presser it’s a good chance to rotate. Hope he’s bluffing too an extent and the disruption is minimal

Cresswell looked like he took a good knock yesterday, tweaked his groin in a challenge and they haven’t got LB cover really. That’ll be where we can hurt them, getting the full backs up the pitch as much as possible. Antonio looked knackered yesterday as well, they may rest him

I really hope not. We got away with it vs Swansea and Coventry, WHU are too good not to put us away if we mess around. Like you say, hopefully he’s learnt. It’d be a crime to throw this one given it’s our best chance of winning something and euro qualification

Full strength, unchanged for me. Rotate a few for Villa if needed. We should be putting absolutely everything into the cup run now that we’re safely mid table but way short of Euro qualification

On Newcastle, I think the stars have aligned for them. A few new faces gave them a boost on the training ground when they got the cash injection and it coincided with the best run of fixtures you could ask for. Their 4 wins: Leeds A 0-1 - Leeds have been dross for weeks Everton H 3-1 - we’ve seen Everton’s away form for ourselves, one of the easiest fixtures on the calendar. Set on their way by an awful wall for Tripper FK Villa H 1-0 - Villa in terrible form too, lucky deflected FK from Trippier Brentford A 0-2 - played 80 mins against 10 men, put on a plate for them And 1-1 draws with Watford H, and West Ham A amongst that. It’s a good run but it’s all gone their way. Amusingly, their shit £25m striker is still shit and hasn’t scored, their star man has got injured, Targett tbf has been 6-7/10 every week. Burn has given them some more presence at the back. I still think they’ll lose plenty of games but sadly they’ve done enough to stay up

Stupid but deserved red for Brentford. Really poor standard this, they both look like championship sides. Come on the Bees

We see it time and time again with Saints, and it’s no wonder so many players’ form tails off when they leave. Those sides mentioned have higher profile players on bigger wages, and are possibly more skilful individuals, but it means nothing if the work ethic and knowledge/lack of a system they’re trying to implement isn’t right. All credit to Ralph.

They rightly bigged up Romeu and Stu on sky, but KWP was absolutely outstanding again. He’s a top player.

Yeah, for failing to challenge for a title. Levy has always seen Spurs as bigger and better than they are.

Leeds are a mad side to watch. So reckless defensively. Looking forward to going to Elland Road in a few weeks

Sadly accurate. Would be class to get it going but can’t see it

Top day out that. Took a while to get going but we were always going to get over the line today. There aren’t many players in the league I’d want to start over Stu Armstrong when he’s at his best. MOTM for me. Though Romeu deserves a shout, he absolutely bossed the middle of the park today. KWP an unbelievable player and getting better every week. We’re a really, really good side these days.

I don’t think so, Man Utd vs Brighton was on Tuesday, along with the CL ties. Absolute bollocks from the Premier League as usual.

I thought the defender was getting across, at least it was going to be close. For me the ref hasn’t made a clear and obvious error by awarding the yellow, so shouldn’t overturn it.

United were awful again. Brighton missed some great chances, harsh red, Ronaldo scored a great goal but missed a couple of sitters. Even with 10 men Brighton had chances then done on the break in injury time. United are a horrible side. Some quality but lazy, moaning, entitled and pretty poor to watch. They won’t finish 4th.

It really should be a midweek in March. The week after our FA cup game or the week after that. Them and us have only got weekend fixtures between our cup game and the international break. Ridiculous that it still hasn’t been rescheduled

He did really well to hold his run and stay onside. Clever pass too

Agreed, I think we have to start Perraud and Moi down the left after that last night. They seemed to have a great understanding. United are fragile and don’t seem to graft for each other. Take the game to them and don’t let them have it their way, they’ll soon by moaning at each other. Need to be better at putting our chances away though.

There’s way more to it that that IMO. As others have said, the LB/RB situation has helped, Salisu winning everything and Bednarek generally decent, keeps the pressure off the keeper. JWP and Romeu have been absolutely class through this run of form too. A settled back 4 and organised CM, that’s what results are built on.