SNSUN

First AWAY win against a top 4 positioned team since 2016 according to the Beeb.

Merry Christmas all! This year has flown by! I should be making Christmas Eve memories with my 18 month old daughter this evening but instead I’m out on the razz! God help me at half past 7 tomorrow morning when I get poked in the eye.

Guarantee it won’t change tomorrow!

I think Brighton could also slip and even with 28 points, Sheffield United are only 10 points off us and it's not beyond belief that a bad run could see them drop, not that I think they will. Every season we seem to be in a relegation battle, I look at the last few fixtures. Ours are favourable this season, especially if we are fighting for points by then.

I dread to say it as he's a local boy doing brilliantly for us this season but purely hypothetically... What do people think he's worth currently? Not that I think he'd go anywhere anytime soon, or that we'd even let him go when we're in a relegation battle, but surely big clubs are monitoring him right now, as they do with any decent goalscorer in the league. He seems to have put his injury issues behind him and has become the player Liverpool hoped they'd signed when they got him on a free.

It depends what finances we have available. He’s a proven goal scorer in an average team in the Championship. It’s a win/win signing, as either 1) he helps score goals that keep us up when we only have one source of goals currently, 2) We get relegated and would probably be able to sell him for at least what we paid or 3) we get relegated and have a proven Championship goal scorer and one of the Championship’s best players on the books. 3)... is the same reason we should persevere with Adams long term. (And perhaps should look at giving Danso more game time). Defence is of course the priority then DM, but he’d definitely be high up on the attacking list. Although Ralph did say the other day that attack was not his focus, so we will see.

Oops, meant consolation.

I didn’t mind the equaliser as Grealish is in my fantasy team! 3 welcome points, no relegation zone over Christmas, and we’re keeping in touch with the teams just above us coming up to the transfer window. 11 points off the Champions League spots, doable. The goal difference will take care of itself in that time.

The mistake was keeping Pellegrino on as long as we did when everyone could see he wasn’t good enough. If he’d been sacked in December, for example, we could have got a new manager in with a fresh take on the team and signings better than Carillo. But yes we’ve had bad transfer windows for some time now. The Summer window just gone seemed OK attacking wise, bringing in the promising Adams and exciting Djenepo in addition to Ings (how were we to know how that would turn out!) and keeping the likes of Boufal but a panic Danso signing aside, it was more about the players we didn’t sign than those we did...Defence! It seems we persuaded Cedric to stay on as he was the cheap option rather than bringing someone new in. The way I see it, we have one window to get it right or we are down. Centre back, right back as a minimum. Left back and defensive midfielder if possible. It’s hard to see it happening though.

41, but I’ve been supporting Saints since ‘89 and I only missed 3 since then, the most recent being 2006. I was a bit sketchier on the early 80s but got a few, I was surprised by one of them.

Otherwise known as "hoping the other team are crapper than us".

It says on Wiki that it was James Beattie who really improved him as a player at Brum. Maybe we should bring Beatts home as a coach...

Win this, and we are approximately halfway to safety, points wise. 36 is enough most seasons, although I do think it maybe closer to 40 this season as everyone seems to be taking points off everyone else. If we can get to the end of December passing the 20 point mark, I'd say we have a good shot at safety, if not more, so long as strengthening the team in January goes to plan. On paper West Ham have a very good team, but they seem to be underperforming. It's a decent chance to pick up 3 points, but we need to stop letting teams have easy rides against us. Boufal to start please!

The reasoning is that if the defence improves, things at the top of the park will improve too. Redmond is out of form but will improve, and we have Djenepo and Boufal too, not to mention JWP and Armstrong that can play more advanced roles. Oh, and Sims back from his loan. I’d be massively surprised if we brought in an attacking midfielder with all those on the books. As for strikers... we’ll after spending £15 million on Adams in the summer, again I’d be massively surprised if we spent more on a striker, although as Long would be going in the summer most likely, I think that position would be addressed then. The defence needs sorting way more than the attack, and from what I read on here, it seems like we’re going to have limited funds to do even that!

Ha, I wish! Nah been a long time sufferer since '89, my teens tainted with the relegation battles of the 90s. I didn't mean the 2010s as a whole, but the tail end of them and the general degradation of the first team into perennial relegation battles from poor signings. At least in the 90's we had MLT, and going into the Noughties there was the promise of a new ground, MLT and an upturn in league status under Hoddle. 2020+ seems like a fresh start, of course it all depends on our finishing position this season. I look at our fixture list at the tail end of this season and we have 3 winnable games - that fills me with a little bit of confidence going into the new year, even if we are in the relegation zone heading towards them.

My list in order of priority hasn't much changed since earlier posts, and is probably similar to most people's: CB RB LB DM Centre Back has to be addressed. The problem is we have tons of crap ones on the books sucking up the wages and TBF, we need a top class Centre Back to come in which requires superb scouting - something we've not been great at for years. Right Back - again we already have two which is an issue, but Cedric is a liability and Valery is the future. Cedric needs to be sold/loaned out and a new one brought in. Left Back - OK we have Bertrand as a starter, but he's been far from his best for some time now, and with no back up left back seemingly as Ralph is unwilling to try Vokins, we end up playing out of position players there. If anything I'd be bringing someone in that could ultimately displace Bertrand as first choice. Defensive Midfield - If the centre backs are going to continue to ship goals, then a brick ****house Wanyama-esque defensive midfielder is needed. But then Ralph seems unwilling to play the only one we have on the books in Romeu, so I think this will be less high up on the priority list. The attack is fine, I can't see anything happening there, which is a shame as I would be all over Bowen otherwise. Goalkeeper? Well we are supposed to have two good ones on the books, but they've both been poor this year. Still I can't see anything happening there. If Gunn is the future, maybe we should just play him - he'd certainly be first choice in the Championship if we go down. I can't see 4 players being brought in in January, so even if we bring 2 in, it needs to be a right back and centre back.

I’ve been watching Leicester carve through Villa like butter and I think, back under Koeman, if we had really pushed on, that could have been us. Now we’re throwing away games and points like they don’t matter and are struggling to keep our heads above water. Bring on the 2020s and whatever it throws at us, I’m done with the 2010s.

Well that’s Christmas paid for. Thanks you useless bunch of bastards. Saints: only good for making money on insurance bets.

One win in 22 years at St James's Park. I'll also take a point. Apparently Saint-Maximin was limping in the warm up according to Twitter...

Lucky not to be sent off! At least they have no bloody Perez this time around, although he's already made us suffer this season!

Oh and JWP injured Almeiron for the season last time out, so that could be spicy. :-)

They are playing with two left backs, no Schar and Lascelles is long term injured. Not to mention Saint-Maximin is playing through the pain barrier with a dodgy ankle (which I'd be knocking about a bit to see if it copes). I'd say, with a couple of confident wins behind us, this is a decent chance to pick up at least a point. (Which I would take.) I really hope though that this is one of those games we just click and unexpectedly walk away with all three points. Go on Djenepo, show us what you can do!

Quite a few strikers were signed up from the Championship by Premier League teams in the summer, Maupay, McBurnie, Ayew, JRod and Adams (excluding the attacking midfielder types of James, Clarke and Jota) and I said at the end of the window that pound or pound, Adams would be the best purchase. I still think long term that would be the case. None of the strikers there have so far been worth what those teams paid for them, except perhaps Ayew at a knockdown £5 million. It's just unfortunate for him that Ings has started the season so well (but fortunate for us), and that he didn't knock a goal in early on. But to be honest a 3-0 thumping on the first day of the season is enough to knock anyone's confidence.

Watford to appoint Nigel Pearson! Interesting choice compared to their last few managers. Moyes back to Everton?

I think this but it depends on how many points they can pick up through December. Until Boxing Day (inclusive) they've got some kind fixtures that they could pick up points in - but they have a horrific January, which could dent their confidence. Losing to Newcastle in a game they probably thought they could get points in may already hurt them. Certainly if we can continue to pick up points, as I believe Everton will eventually do, some teams in the group above us could certainly suffer. Even Palace and their amazing season are only 6 points ahead of us. I still think the likes of Burnley, Bournemouth, Villa and Brighton will be well in the mix come the end of the season, possibly even Newcastle too. A couple of games ago it was hard to see us catch up let alone think about safety - let's hope we continue to pick up points and not be one of those teams that other relegation-threatened teams consider as "certs for a relegation spot".