Cabrone

That was a brilliant point. Chelsea are one of the best teams in Europe let alone the UK so I consider that a point gained against our rivals. Now for the Arse, we owe them one.

Anything we get will be a bonus being as they are beating just about everyone at the moment. Just want to see us throw the kitchen sink at them and have a good tear up. The recent games against the 'big 4' have been an anticlimax for me because we didn't really turn up in any of them. The Man Utd game in particular was a bit of a joke. If we go down all guns blazing then fair dues to them but let's actually give them a game in the first place. Great win yesterday BTW, looks like we've broken our recent bad form. I thought we'd spiral down to mid table but then I'm still haunted by the ghost of Saints past.

Well well well that was a surprise, a great one as I couldn't see us getting anything more than a draw out of this one. Such a damn shame about Tuesday but you have to say overall it's been a fantastic first half of the season. Mayve that's the result that will give us a 2nd wind.

It's not the defeat as much as the nature of the performance. We didn't threaten them atall and things are all of a sudden looking very tough in the league. The players need to roll their sleeves up and work hard to get back to form. We also need some reinforcements in the squad, we may have overreached and if fatigue is setting in it's only going to get worse. Let's just get those 14 points and see where we go from there.

Damn this has come at a bad time, if we'd have played them a month ago I'd be quite confident of a result but on the back of 4 defeats it's looking more open. Really want us to win this one, the league was fun but it looks like we're sliding down to mid table now. This is the competition we have a big chance of silverware in. If the lads put a big shift in we'll come through but they'd better turn up for this one as Utd will be well up for it. Come on Saints!

I'd like Artur back in goal, he may have the odd brain fart but he controls his area and projects a lot more confidence and authority that rubs of on the defence. Fraser looks like a good shot stopper but he's too timid for me, he's got to boss his area - get off his line and cut out opposition opportunities before they even start. IMO Artur would have come out for the first goal last night and made RVP's chance a lot harder and would have gobbled up the second before RVP even had the chance. He's miles better at knowing when to get off his line and snuff out opportunities before they even happen.

The difference? We need half a dozen chances before we score whereas Van Persie had 2 and scored twice. He really is a class act and i'm looking forward to when he buggers off . Mane is a random jack in the box, his decision making is pretty random - when it works he's good but too often he plays odd balls. A frustrating player. My view on Forster hasn't changed, he's got all the physical qualities to be a top keeper but mentally Artur has it over him (despite his odd eccentricities). Artur would have plucked that free kick from Van Persie before he had a chance to score. I'd like to see him back. Pelle has more goals in him but is being a bit starved at the moment, give him more service - a little less elaboration and more direct balls. We wasted quite a lot of first half moves tonight through over passing. Frustrating but we are being taught a few lessons in winning at the moment, Man Utd aren't good but once again they managed to get over the line. Still been a top season so far though.

Come on Saints, the Mancs are there for the taking. Get in their faces and their soft midfield\defence will crack. Mane is a livewire and has played some nice balls but for me he needs to get more direct, play more crosses so Graziano gets some ammo. Good game, 3 points are up for grabs but the Mancs do have a razor sharp attack, Shrek has been ominously quiet so far.

I'm another one in the Boruc camp, FF just doesn't fill me with as much confidence. In a funny way I wonder if playing behind our defence is doing him no favours as up to yesterday he hadn't had a really good work out. He's got the physical attributes, I'd just like to see a bit more self confidence, arrogance even. Artur has the mental edge on him IMO.

Poor performance, no shame in losing to the champions but the nature of the defeat was not good. To have had a chance we needed to get into their faces but we backed off, gave them too much respect and they steamed us. No pace going forward, no real creativity, ponderous midfield, FF doesn't fill me with total confidence - City had a far more comfortable afternoon than they ever should have. Was Cork on the bench? Why was Morgan subbed for Yoshi, Cork was the obvious replacement? Long looked OK when he came on, more of a threat than Mane.

Really looking forward to this one, hope it's a good tear up. Fans need to play their part and make a lot of noise, shouldn't be difficult as if you can't get up for this game then there's something wrong with you. 3-2 to Saints and the Chelsea gap reduced back down to 4 points.

Dropped a division to join us too, a very underrated player who seems to step up to a new level every time he is asked to. Fonte should be as big a legend as Ricky IMO.

City are beatable if you cut off Aguero's supply. The rest of them are nothing special. Bayern mugged themselves tonight, City were down and out before Bayern tossed the game away, a game that didn't mean anything to them anyway. Schneiderlin\Wanyama\Cork + our defence will not be giving them the kind of freebies Bayern did tonight.

Quite fancy our chances in this one, infact I fancy our chances against all the big boys at SMS - bar Chelsea. Citeh aren't all that, they have their weaknesses and we can exploit them. If we can make sure that Aguero doesn't get any service they will have lost a huge amount of threat.

2 points dropped. Villa really aren't up to much and we should have figured a way to get the win TBH. Let's hope they've got the lethargy out of their system. Bigger picture though is 2 points clear on 2nd place and a very tasty set of fixtures to come. Citeh on Sunday - bring it on.

A dull, cold Monday night at Villa park, 1-0 down at half time. Time to see what we are made of Villa (a) is 3 points for a team with top 4 aspirations.

If we get champs league we'd have a queue of quality players wanting to come here. I also think just about all our players would stay. If Toby left I'm sure the club could replace him with someone as good though I'd personally love him to stay. Top 4 is a very long way off yet though.

I counted 6 current or ex Saints on display for England last night, more than half the team at the end. That's pretty amazing. Scotland are a Strachan team, work hard and make life difficult but they just don't have the players. I'd keep that England lineup, looked pretty decent to me.

Koeman's Saints 2-1. Would be a very good game.

Seems to be the way with a lot of posters on this bb, players are great when they are here but as soon as they leave they become crap or pantomime villains. Maybe as you get older and have seen so many players come and go you are a bit more balanced about it but the hypocrisy is pretty strong on here. Adam Lallana was and still is an excellent player who was pivotal to our rise from league 1 to the prem and left for a fat fee that was then used to buy the possibly even better Tadic. Best of luck to him, no hard feelings - the club and fans have had good service from him. Wonder if Dusan and Graziano will get the same reappraisal of their abilities the day they leave (and there's every chance they will if one of the big boys come sniffing)? Players come, players go. That's life I'm afraid.

He's served his porridge and as far as the rules go he can play. Getting into arguments about what he did are stepping into an unsolvable moral maze. The system says that he's OK to play so he's OK to play. Change the system if you don't like it. Whether clubs want to employ him is their affair though, if fans feel strongly enough fan power may have an effect - we'll have to see.

Why would the media be 'worried'? All they care about is selling copy and SFC currently makes an interesting story - endless opportunities for articles. If anything I wish we weren't so reported about, to operate under the radar. Bigging up our players could be destabilising. Why do so many on here give a monkey's what the media say? I really couldn't give a toss, reality is our current performances and 2nd place, the rest is vapid nonsense. The fans of the other clubs will still read their reports so I'd imagine the media are quite enjoying the added flavour that our assault on the top is adding.

The only way I could see him coming back as a member of SFC would be in some kind of coaching role with a bit of playing, like KD. As a player his time with us has finished. Still a legend though and always welcome back by everyone.

If we get top 4 we'll get have loads banging on our door to join up. Getting into the top 4 is moving into a new world where we become the ones who pick and choose. However if we don't get there then I can see a rerun of last summer, finishing just outside top 4 is a dangerous place to finish, you are noticed but have no european football to offer. However as long as we avoid too many injuries I think we can get top 4, especially being as the usual suspects are stumbling. If we can get a solid return from our Dec\Jan games and they keep on bumbling along then we'll be in a brilliant position. It's doable.

Bored.....are you kidding. I have too many memories like being laughed at by Watford fans during a wet, midweek cup game, dismal capitulation at Pompey, losing 3-0 in the cold rain at Blackburn, having our asses handed to us at Everton, humiliatingly turned over at Tranmere and Bristol Rovers (SRL had a good one for them that day), more dreary away defeats than I care to remember and plenty of home ones too. Sounds like you've been following Saints as long as I have. We've paid our dues, it's time for some long overdue fun. Enjoy it.