SNSUN

Well we shall see whether they are "on crack" or not come the end of January. After all Ralph has already stated he's looking to bring in players, and he's not going to paying for them with Unicorn farts is he, so he must already have a pre-agreed budget. IMO I think our budget will be less than the £30-35 million quoted in the papers but that's just conjecture.

“Villa lose Wesley and Heaton for the season” Well if that isn’t a headline that screams relegation I don’t know what is! But it made me wonder if they’d be after a new Keeper, and whether we could offload Forster on a permanent, maybe in a battle with Celtic. I guess it depends what the terms of his loan are.

Daily Mail apparently has it at £35m plus any sales I read which should be enough for 2/3 decent players. I'd be very surprised if we didn't go for Maehle pretty soon, he seems to be a long term target in a position we've been looking to fill.

Yes, they are two that I would rest - but as we currently have no right back or left back cover, both really need to play. (Short of using the likes of Ramsay and Vokins or players out of position.)

Nah, I'd still choose Hasenhuttl. We certainly need a change up if we want to continue the League form but I wouldn't be changing too much as we should be taking this competition seriously. Perhaps this is a chance for those that haven't seen game time since the 9-0 to make up for it, while resting a couple of the harder working first team players. Gunn Cedric (if Valery still not fit) Yoshida Bednarek Bertrand (unless Ralph feels like giving Vokins a shot) Romeu Hojbjerg Armstrong Boufal Djenepo Obafemi

With Yoshida OOC at the end of the season (and most likely off), Danso nowhere and Vestergaard tipped to re-join his old club (or be offloaded somewhere if not there), we still need to be seeing a CB come in this window - but I agree, it's a less pressing concern than it was a couple of months ago. A partnership is blossoming and both players have stepped it up - however an injury or suspension to one of them and we could see the brick wall come down. A CB is a must this window. Jack Stephens ≥ Harry Maguire...

Crazy League - 12 points between 5th and 19th. So really we could go either way. Keep playing as we have been and we should pick up enough points for a top half finish. 7-10 would be a decent return from those 5 fixtures and as we now know, we already have 3 of those in the bank, so we are now looking at 4 to 7 for the next 4 fixtures. (If anything, 4 from the next 4 now seems a little tight!) Anything more than ten points is dreamland. With our new found confidence we should be looking to give the FA Cup a good go too.

Surely Ings for POTM

Had the 9-0 been a mere 3-0 against Leicester, we'd even be above Everton in 10th (and top half of the table right now). Huge progress. And with every win, we are chipping away at that goal difference, something draws don't accomplish. Full credit to Ralph for turning this around, and full credit to the board etc for not pulling the trigger when they could so easily have done that.

Another clean sheet? Against another "top 6" team? What sorcery is this! I don't know which body part Ralph sold to the devil to get the defence sorted after looking so shyte in the first half of the season, but long may it continue. Ings can have my babies anytime.

SURELY

Time wasting sub time?

3 shots on target against Gazzaniga - I'd be smashing them in from all angles against him. Annoyingly for all our seemingly good work, all it takes is one moment. This would be a massive 3 points though...

Ooh that's one to keep an eye on for the Fantasy team... Kane hammy.

Watford down to ten men

And full of murderous rage if we don't even get a point.

Are we hunting for a second or should we look to bring on Romeu to shore things up?

Will it ever get to the point that a striker with an uncontrollable erection gets VAR'd for offside I wonder? Best make it 10 inches. Nobody has a 10 incher.

Normally I would say 29 points should see them only needing another 6 or 7 for safety but with teams near the bottom (including us) picking up points, I think the safety mark could be quite high this year - somewhere around the 40 point mark. That's why I wouldn't personally rule them out yet - they have the squad that could easily get demoralised from a few defeats in a row and see them plummet. It's still the fixture on the calendar that Saints and other teams should be looking to try and get three points from in 2020. Also I look at Liverpool, and genuinely I think that if they have the title sewn up early, they'll rest players for other competitions - and that bodes well for teams that play them towards the end of the season. Burnley, Brighton and Villa have them in April, and Newcastle in May.

How do you as a fan get rid of VAR? Same way you get rid of Gao, or Lowe, or whoever - vote with your feet. Don't go to games. Unfortunately VAR is here to stay, so it would be wasted effort. The only hope we have is that it gets better, quicker, smoother, like Rugby. I'd give the Stockley Park lot a minute to make a decision, or the refs decision stands. Start the clock. 59...58...57... Anyway haven't we benefitted from it more than it's hindered us so far? I guess that will even itself out in time, but still we've done OK so far.

I'm not sure about this "as cover" thing, unless it is a loan. For me I think we'd be better off buying a young up and coming left back that long term can challenge Bertrand for the first team spot. Does anyone know what the situation is with McQueen?

Or...dangerous way to get rid of unwanted Christmas present...

Metal hip flask thrown on to the pitch. Waste of a good hip flask.

This. Finally BBC put a comedy on Christmas Day prime time that isn't MBB - and it shows with the highest ratings in years. I'm not sure where they go from here though, they'll be wanting to repeat the feat with another big old comedy. The Office? Although I suspect they'll waggle more money under Corden and Jones's nose.

We’ve broken one hoodoo we’ve had since the last Koeman season let’s break another... we haven’t won 3 Premier League games in a row since the Koeman days. What a way to end 2019 it would be if we could. Cracking goal by Ayew yesterday to rival either of ours for goal of the month. Should be a good game.