Holmes_and_Watson

Saints welcome Bart Simpson to the club. While some fans voiced their concerns regarding having a fictional, cartoon character, between the sticks, the club were keen to promote their innovative transfer policy. "We're proud to bring in Bart to further strengthen Fred Flintstone in defence. Our thinking outside both the box, and our reality, will continue to bring value to the club." The club refused to be drawn on rumours of advanced negotiations with Melchester Rovers.

Push

Have to trust the scouting/ recruitment on this one. Forster has shown how important a good keeper is to us. They may think he's not what they want going forward. But Forster's form has set the bar for the quality we need replaced (as a minimum, for a number who feel that there are significant improvements that can be made here, even for our budget). A couple of comments suggested they have a type of player in mind. So, we can only trust them, when Forster goes. I hope we're not at this point next season, bemoaning letting Forster go.

Another excellent win. Nearly there. I thought it was going to be much closer. Even though we're not there yet, lots of credit to the team and staff for getting to this position.

Just imagine all the things he does well, and add some goals to it. >sigh< He got or nearly got double figures one year I think. But it was a while back. Still I hope someone else can pick up on being a pain to play against, when he goes. I'd really useful to have.

I couldn't resist taking a look after all the recent xG chat. Saints 1.04 vs Arsenal 1.35 https://understat.com/match/16700 Grabs coat and runs...runs like the wind...fails to take the ball on the run though... 0xG...

Organ

Xcellent. 🙂

We changed to be more defensively solid, not leaving those huge spaces down the flanks (lots of us crying out for that) We played Perraud at left back, giving the side a natural balance (lots of us crying out for that) We kept it compact not allowing them to shift our midfield out opf position and expose the defence (lots of us crying out for that) He rested Livramento (late sub) and Salisu, who looked to be particualrly out of sorts of late. So credit to Raph for addressing the recent issues. We didn;t offer much going forward, as we tried to protect that 1-0 lead. But we did that really well. Not well enough that Forster didn't have to make a fw good saves. His size and physicality make those look a bit easier for him than some other keepers. The club may think Forster is too old style, and prefer a more modern keeper. But it's a risk, as he'll have to be as good at Fraser in this sort of match too. Really pleased with the work rate and Redmond and Long did well when they came on too. Long in particular.

Yeah. Long did his usual very professional, tireless nuisance role agian today. Well done.

Yay!

Long picks up a good booking. Just frustrating them.

Yay! Blazed over from Arsenal.

Mo for Livramento.

Better falling over from Long that time. Still excellent from Romeu,

Good stuff from Romeu. Shame Long fell over, having run out of ideas with noone else to apss to around him.

Forster again with a solid save.

Arsenal poppet falls over from a Romeu header. They go over so easily.

Good game form Stu. With cramp kicking in, good time for the sub. Come on Redders!

Whew! Big Man makes himself...well, big to keep that one out.

t's all Arsenal. We could do with putting a couple of passes together. And another excellent save by Forster, as above. They are trying to constantly get it central for those efforts.

Sakha made one massive scream wehn he got tackled. Surprisingly, both his legs were still attached wehn he bounced back up. I thought they'd fallen off with a scream like that.

Odegard had a decent shot to take there. After Smith Rowe just fell over on the other side.

Soares off, so no goal from that ex-player.

Tight lipped Arteta off down the tunnel. Forster made a good save earlier, and Arsenal didn't take advantage of any of their runs at our back line. We didn;t offer much, but didn;t look as though as though we were going to be cut to ribbons due to the formation change. I think that was Peraud hitting it back in for the Broja assist to Bednarek. Another reason for him being in the team. 🙂 Second half will be interesting. We may just keep it the same, with the odd hopeful break. Broja is our best option for that anyway, so I hope he stays on.