Cabrone

A draw would give us a nice little 3 point cushion on Spurs and being as Arsenal aren't going to realistically overtake us tomorrow plus they have City (a) next week a point should see us stay top 4 for at least a couple more weeks yet. I can see us getting a point, would love all 3 after the game as SMS but that might be a bit of a stretch.

Argel ****s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argel_****s Not a footballer but Andreas **** is good for a giggle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_****

It was a pretty dull affair tbh, apart from a 10 minute spell around our goal we were in 2nd gear for the whole match. We kept on crossing the ball in even though the Ipswich defence won the aerial battle fairly comfortably, we needed to mix it up but the players seemed to have a real reluctance to shoot. TBH we looked like a team that wanted to win but with the minimum effort and football doesn't work like that, you've got to go out with 100% commitment. Ipswich were typical Mick McCarthy, solid but unspectacular. McGoldrick did absolutely nothing for them. Still think we'll win the replay if we really want it, we are comfortably a better team than them a replay is a real pain and we should have seen them off at SMS.

I really hope we can land him, right up there in my time of watching with Mark Wright, Killer, Deano and Dejan (for the first half of last season) as one of the best CBs we've had if not even the best. No frills player, just reads the game brilliantly and cuts out the danger before it usually happens. If we can land him and get top then the chances of landing Bertrand and Morgan increase no end. Fingers crossed.

Just shows that the cups are still be a big draw if the club get the prices right. As a fan I still take it seriously, it's our biggest (our only) chance of silverware and something we have a realistic chance of winning. Should be a cracking match, Burnley gave us a good game last year and Ipswich will be just as dangerous. Got to be on our best form to win this.

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.