Whitey Grandad

2 goals in 15 appearances for £12m fee. If he played for us with that record there'd be hell to pay on here.

I think we must be talking about different situations. For the second goal Antonio starts off wide on our right flank and all alone. He then makes a run towards the far post behind Yoshida's back and gets his head to Fonte's deflection. VVD is over the othe side of the penalty area.

Not really. He was in the correct position for what was actually a pretty feeble attempt at a cross which was deflected up by Fonte's outstretched leg. If Antonio's run gets picked up then he just gets blocked off and doesn't get a chance to make his header. We had both Yoshida and Fonte trying to cover Carroll and Antonio is completely ignored. It's not Virgil's job to be cutting out crosses from wide outside the box, that should be Bertrand's. I think we can both agree that defensively it was a complete shambles all round. I tend to concentrate on the fullbacks because that's where I used to play.

I saw all our players, VVD was in the central area. Thanks for the advice but I don't need any education in ball watching, I've seen enough examples of it this season to last me a lifetime. The big question is: why do they all do it!

Will he be able to sign in time? The window doesn't open until midnight on 2nd January, I believe.

Ah, thanks. It's a bit of an indictment that we get halfway through the season without a right back who can play a full 90 minutes of every game.

Not a silly idea.

Well, I've watched MOTD again before deleting it and I stand by what I said. Antonio starts off wide and runs in to attack the goal in case there are any crosses or deflections. Yoshida is a total spectator throughout and hasn't got a clue that Antonio is running in behind him. It's the fullback's job to protect the flanks and watch for anybody attacking from that direction and he failed, and not for the first time when playing in that position. If Antonio's header had gone straight into the goal then we'd all be blaming Yoshida and quite right too. Was Cuco really that bad that Yoshida was a better choice for that position?

Nice one. What an epitaph that would be.

Me too. For the second, why was Yoshida on the pitch if he's just going to wander about spectating?

Did they say when? We are bound to have ups and downs and top six can only ever be a long-term aim and it's not going to happen when players want away every season and we don't have a settled team. I'm pretty sanguine about it all.

We've needed that for some time, too much hope was pinned on J-Rod's return.

A draw would be solid progression. I'd be disappointed with anything less.

Nothing to worry about, unless you think that we should be in the top 6 every season. We're a mid-table team, you'd expect us to beat the teams below us and to lose to those above, on the whole

To be fair, it could have been read that way.

Dibdab

There's an article on him in The Times today: 'Victor Wanyama Shows Arsenal What They Are Missing' It's a pay subscription so I shouldn't quote it wholesale.

I assumed that having another game two days later might have influenced the decisions to substitute.

And they were away and we were at home. Of course we played later so it sort of evens itself out.

All very true. Was it Davis who headed the ball back? I thought it was an Arsenal defender.

Apologies, I was using 'you' in the plural, but must admit I had quoted you. I haven't seen any comments on the ref's performance apart from a handful on here, which is hardly representative.

But it's already been spent and is no longer relevant to the debate. Besides, in today's market £12m is not excessive for a team with aspirations of being in the upper half of the Premier League. Just take a look at all the other teams and see what they have been playing.

We have this debate after every game and it's not because the refs are rubbish, it's because some people think they should be biased towards Saints on every occasion. He got a couple of minor decisions wrong but on the whole he let the game flow whenever possible and in that sense was partly responsible for a great evening. If you think that every ref is sh!te then that probably means that you don't understand their job / the laws / what is s expected of them. They can't all be bad.

I couldn't see the bend on he shot from my position in central Kingsland but when he had first hit it I thought it was way off target. I was quite surprised to see it hit the side netting, well inside the post.

Long had been mouthing off and arguing with Moss for some time before that. Whether or not you think it was a foul there was no need for Long to touch the ball and he could have just got on with the game. The whistle had gone before the backheel.