Sheaf Saint

Apparently that is Chamberlain's first ever goal away from home for Arsenal

Despite the replay showing that Wanyama never took his eyes off the ball, yeah?

With our recent form and results, we have no reason to fear any of those opponents. I would say the trickiest of them is Stoke away, as they are normally an incredibly difficult team to beat at the Britannia, although Everton made them look poor today so they are clearly beatable.

Very. Contributed nothing to our attack.

In a way it was the opposite of last season's corresoonding fixture, after their keeper got sent off and we were camped in their half for most of the game but just couldn't penetrate a compact, well organised defence and create any clear chances. It's a remarkable turnaround from what we were seeing throughout November and December really. With the same players, our defence has gone from looking likely to crumble and giving away soft goals at least once a game to being so good they are not allowing opposition players the opportunity to even test our keeper. In the one game where this was not the case - Arsenal in midweek - we have a keeper capable of putting in MOTM performances when called on. Up front though, is a different matter. Maybe he's still carrying an injury, but Pelle just wasn't in the game at all this evening. He slows down our attack and makes himself far too easy to mark. Austin and Long both had decent chances on the break but neither were on target, and so not for the first time recently, it came down to one of our defensive players to provide the goal. I really hope Austin will be fit enough to start soon, because its getting really frustrating week in week out watching our forward line huff and puff but fail to find the net.

If Clattenburg had made the correct decision and not allowed himself to be influenced by the whinging and play-acting from the WHU players, would we still have had this thread?

I doubt Vic will serve that. We are certain to appeal because that was clearly not worthy of a straight red. Payet made a massive meal out of very little contact, he clearly tried to get the ball and it wasn't a dangerous tackle imo. I'm confident we would win an appeal for it.

Everton 3-0 up before HT.

Not really. He's actually one of the better referees in the PL these days.

Yep. Has to be Kelvin for me. Not just because of the significance of winning that game in terms of our promotion, bit because he was just super human that day. As good as Fraser was tonight, I don't think any of the saves he made were ones that I wouldn't expect him to make.

Couldn't really have complained at two defeats from our last two games, so to come away from them with four points and no goals conceded is a superb return. Arse will feel they should have won that, and they certainly got enough help from Lee Mason, but that was a MOTM performance from Forster. So good to have him back, as you can't help but feel that Stek would have let at least one of those efforts in tonight. Just a shame our own attempts at goal were so weak, otherwise we could have performed a smash and grab.

I haven't heard Pelle mentioned once since he came on.

Have we actually had a refereeing decision go in our favour this half? He's just blowing his whistle for an Arsenal FK every time there is any contact FFS.

On the ropes now. Will happily take a draw from here. Pelle on for Tadic. Would have taken Mane off myself. He's flattered to deceive and been completely ineffective so far.

Superb double save from Forster there. Outstanding.

Posted this on the build-up thread by mistake. Mane having another shocker tonight. His decision making when he has the ball in good positions is atrocious.

Mane having another shocker tonight. His decision making when he has the ball in good positions is atrocious.

I think he means in our post-relegation/promotion era. I got 41. Of the leading ones I forgot Kevin Davies.

Just having a read through the post-match thread on redcafe. If you think this forum is full of bedwetting drama queens, go and have a read of United's... http://www.redcafe.net/threads/post-match-manchester-united-vs-southampton.413832/ These are a couple of the best quotes I have found so far... And my absolute favourite...

I would really love to know why exactly it is you think Tadic alone deserves to be slated after that. He played as well as anybody else today, and in fact he was the one that created the glorious chance in the first half which Mane miscontrolled and fluffed. If any one player should be singled out for criticism from that performance it was Mane. He looked like he was trying too hard and just nothing came off for him, although I can't really have a go because at least he was trying things which, had they worked, we would be hailing as spectacular.

So, David, you were saying.....?

Go straight from the airport and tell her the flight was delayed

So they scraped a win today by scoring from their only shot on target. Sounds a little like when we played Norwich recently. As long as we can take a couple of the chances we will inevitably create, I don't see why we can't be confident of getting a result from this.

I'm blaming all of our previous woes on Stekelenburg. Since Forster came back that's two wins, two thoroughly domninant and professional displays, and 2 clean sheets. Couldn't have asked for better today really. WBA were a better team than Watford were, but we still didn't let them have a single shot on target. Can't wait to see how a proven natural goalscorer like Austin is going to fit into this setup.

Not since Everton scored a 3rd at Chelsea we're not