sandwichsaint

This could be almost anything, I don't particularly 'fear' their attackers, I obviously respect them (and they are a big step up from most of those we have faced this season) but we have a very good back 6 and they have the stats to prove it. Could it be time for FF to step up and pay back for last night's howler? (or will he shrink further into his sometimes nervy paralysis? Guess we'll know quite a bit more about FF after this game). We can match them in the middle f'sure, can we score against their unpredictable back 4 and their often good/sometimes awful keeper? Guess it comes down in part to which City team turns up and after last night's reality check hopefully we can turn up and get back on our previous performance levels. I'll go for a nervy 1-0 with us scoring in the last 10 minutes and then holding on.

I see what you did there.... A player I haven't seen mentioned yet - Toby - he didn't have too much to do last night but he really does look a top class centre back, quick, good anticipation and very clean and decisive when he does intervene.

Done, definitely one of the more thoughtful questionnaires we have had on here, hopefully you can come back and share your findings.

Body language all wrong from the start, for a team that usually has loads of energy and togetherness we haven't had much of either. Did Koeman drop a bollock moaning about Xmas and saying it wasn't fair and we couldn't hope to compete with a smaller squad (I paraphrase but that was the drift of it) - has that message got to the players however subliminally?

Pathetic goal. Long struggling central, get Tadic in behind Pelle.

That's more like it.

That would best be described as 'workman-like', is there anybody in that X1 who would get in our starting X1? (That's done it!)

Away wins at Hull and Villa, the ball's in our court now .... over to you Saints!

We've got half STs so best put us down as new additions to the mid-term roster window.

RL LS AL NC CC JR What we really should have done was kept all our old team AND added the new players, We were 30m pound away from CL certainties ................. or something like that. And changed manager obviously......

A sound maxim for life and football; looking at the last few years I'd be astonished if we hadn't scouted a new chief scout even before the news broke out.

Hopefully the over scout had set-up the under-scouts to scout out a new chief scout if the big scout ever stepped out?

11-01 please.

Villa win 2-0 Citeh win 3-1 Arsenal draw 1-1 or 2-2 Utd will be a bit of a free throw if we can take 7 points from the first three ... they look all over the shop at the back ... 3-0? :)

Damn it, Europa League here we come.

I hope people are factoring in to all of this that for the last two seasons we have barely kicked a ball in anger for the last 10-12 games of both seasons. Safe, secure, complacent, no cup football, no real competition for places. If you factor in the RK factor (he appears to want to go out to win every game we play), the mentality in this group, the improved squad depth/options, and that hopefully we will still be playing for 'big' stakes, I would expect us to pick up considerably more points in the last 12 games of this season than we have done for the previous two seasons.

Southampton Wednesday? That's going to make Save-Our-Stripes look like a vicar's tea party.

And if we can't ... we'll just have to hang in there. We keep (another) clean sheet and we take a minimum of one point. This is a bit of a Stoke away (first half!) for me, very aggressive when we have the ball, hit hard in numbers when we can, be patient when we can't. 0-1 or 0-2 will do just fine, 0-0 or 1-1 not the end of the world, we follow this with a very winnnable game against Citeh, anywhere between 2 and 6 points from those two will be great.

You know you've arrived when ..... you're in Mourinho's mind games! Can you go unbeaten? No, there's United, City, Arsenal and especially Southampton!!!

Hart's 'double kick' was probably the jammiest thing I've ever seen in 45 years of watching football!

Best uncapped player in the Prem? Assuming a) he hasn't got one and b) anybody else can come up with anyone better? Read bits on here today that he has 'stepped up' this season, rubbish. He never went away for me, one of our very best players last season, he stepped up to the PL when some doubted him, he was great in the Championship too. How good is he? He made Lovren look like £20m worth of footballer .... .

Koeman, end of.

What's eating Gary Monk in his post-match comments .... he's coming over like a Roy Keane wanna-be the last couple of weeks.

Palace West Brom Swansea* Newcastle* Leicester Saints Stoke Burnley* QPR Spurs West Ham Sunderland Hull* Everton* Man Utd Man City Liverpool Villa Chelsea Arsenal That would be my take with the following caveats: all away fans are more animated than home fans if you go to pretty much any ground the away fans will (generally) be the ones making the most noise, this applies to us away and to other teams when they come to us (this is not underselling our away support which is generally excellent as per Stoke and Hull last week, with the odd exception, for example Spurs away last season), I'm basing my purely subjective thoughts on how well the home fans back their team through the whole 90 minutes irrespective of the score - there's a lot of truth in you-only-sing-when-you're-winning - if we had a different league table for how passionate/noisy fans were when their team scored we'd see a completely different league table ... glory boys like Chelsea and Man U would be right up there. Also have to say I've not been to the *teams' grounds! Having to use my TV skills, feedback from places like this and all-round perception to give those teams a ranking. Still reckon I've done a better job than Jim White though, Saints 18th out of 20 for home support? Really? He's 'aving a giraffe isn't he?