James

This win doesn't hide the fact that Spurs are utter dross. If they carry on playing like this there is no chance they will finish above us.

Lovren backing off led to Bolasie hitting that shot. What has happened to him?!

I do agree with this. But, we aren't competing against City/Chelsea for a top 4 spot (they are imo - nailed on). We are competing with Man U and Arsenal among a couple of others for the remaining spots. My point is that United and Arsenal do have a lack of depth (and you agreed I had a point) but they would never be beaten with the 'paper thin squad' stick. We on the other hand are constantly accused of this by the media when in reality you could argue that we really aren't much worse off than some of our rivals for CL places.

Targett is an England under-20 international who did well to shackle Alexis Sanchez in a win at the Emirates. We'd have to be pretty desperate to be starting Isgrove so not sure why he was mentioned as he currently isn't even in the squad. Seems to me that big club back up players are deemed better just because they are well known. Liverpool and Spurs have plenty of squad players that are internationals and that I've heard of but it doesn't make them good. I suspect Spurs would enjoy being in a position where they had JRod as a back up striker. Or would you rather have Soldado because he cost a lot and played for Spain a few times? I just don't take the point that the big teams have much better strength and depth as I honestly don't think many do. Look at United for example - a few injuries and they are also playing under 19 centre backs. An injury crisis can hit even the biggest squad.

I actually disagree with a bit of that. Our squad is far from 'paper thin'. I'd like to see how Man City would fair without Toure and Aguero for an extended run of games...their form would suffer as well. Then the suggestion that big teams will 'nick our players in January' - I mean come on, surely even we aren't stupid enough to sell anyone of note in the window if we are still in the mix for the CL? It struck me as a pretty patronizing article which is laced with the belief that a small time club like Southampton will never break the top 4 and the reasons given are the ones trotted out whenever a club outside of the so-called elite makes any kind of challenge. I'm not saying I believe we will finish in the top 4 but its hardly ground breaking to say - 'they've got a small squad' or 'big clubs are just better'.

Would love us to get TA and RB signed up permanently. I think we will definitely secure RB but I fear that the TA deal is a bit more complicated. Fingers crossed though.

Which part of the post do you dispute? I'd be interested to hear.

I'd like to know which of our signings Mitchell was actually responsible for. Of our summer signings: Tadic - clearly Ron influenced Pelle - definitely Ron influenced Mane - reportedly Ron wanted him after he tore apart Feyenoord playing for Red Bull Alderweireld - he's a Belgian international, hardly requires some genius scout to unearth him Forster - England international keeper, see above Long - possible that he had influence Bertrand - possible that he had influence Gardos - definitely possible, but yet to prove how good he actually is. Also worth remembering that for every good signing we have made this summer there is a Gazzaniga, Forren, Mayuka, Ramirez or Osvaldo. Not quite sure what Spurs think they are getting here...but happy to be corrected.

So have we established whether CEC is a member of the Lallana family? It certainly would explain his reluctance to responds to Guan's well presented argument.

The man himself says not too serious so hopefully he's fine for Villa. As others have said, I wouldn't be too disappointed if he sat out Villa and was guaranteed to be available v Man City (i.e. no injury or suspension). Could be good news for us in the long run that both Morgan and Davis have withdrawn from international duty with what look like minor injuries.

The eligibility criteria for this make absolutely no sense at all. In order for ST holders to buy another ticket for this you need to have bought another single ticket to a home game in the last 2 years (i.e. not a season ticket match). Why is this the case? Surely the whole point of a season ticket is that you have effectively pre-bought a ticket to every single home league match and therefore are obviously eligible? It's bizarre to draw a distinction between a season ticket match and another home game...

To be fair, its a hell of a lot better than 'Where's all our players gone?' which is: a) embarrassing and b) doesn't even make sense. It's about time we had some creative chants.

Why have we done that? Ridiculous move IMO.

How Hodgson kept his job after that travesty in Brazil I will never know. He will just revert to type now and pick big 4 players. Bit sad really.

This. I have a small thread of faith in Saints but if this happened we would almost certainly go down.

Exactly. As much as I respect RL, his comments just aren't credible in this context. There is no way on earth he was turning down Liverpool once they came calling and (despite what he might say in hindsight) would have been furious had we stood in his way.

Whilst that is technically accurate - the Liverpool away game was a one in a thousand win (on another day we would have been beaten comfortably, I was at the game). I see it more as 2 points down on where we would realistically expect to be which is a shame but we are only 2 games in so am still hopeful for now.

Surely you can't be serious.... He hasn't played a match yet! Koeman signed him for goodness sake.

Would also like to see Long start, the missed header aside I thought he looked pretty decent when he came on.

Would also like to see Long start, the missed header aside I thought he looked pretty decent when he came on.

Exactly. We will hardly be in real trouble if they don't score that many....typical stat that's just been plucked out of thin air by someone trying to be negative.

This should be pinned up in the dressing room - all the motivation we need to go out and smash these arrogant p*icks.

I didn't realise Harrison Reed spent so much time in Melbourne....

Probably my all time favourite Saint (I missed the best of Le Tiss).

Given the general tenor of this thread, I'd hardly say it was an overreaction..