SaintBobby

The bottom end of the league is so dire this season, that you may only need scraps to stay up. For everyone other than ourselves and West Ham, the season is halfway through. If the three bottom teams replicate their performances in the second half of the season over the next 19 matches, they will end up as follows: 18th Burnley 24 pts, GD -48 19th Fulham 22 pts GD -52 20th Huddersfield 20 pts GD -44 If that were to happen, Saints would stay up if our next twenty games result in 2 wins, 3 draws and 15 defeats...as long as we don't worsen our goal difference by more than 34. Ok, these are extreme numbers. And no one would want to cut it as close as this (or assume that it will be this close), but the hurdle to stay up could be pathetically low. And that's the limit of my ambitions just for now!

Halfway through the season and it looks possible that as few as 24 points might be enough to stay up. Crazy. In reality, I expect it to be more like 30 points, but the entirely made up "40 points for safety" cliche is surely total nonsense this year? (and is nonsense most years tbh)

Amazing stat from Jeff Stelling on Sky....higher attendance at Sunderland v Bradford that as Tottenham v Bournemouth....

I guess we want Palace to beat Cardiff? Or are we optimistic enough to be looking to catch Palace rather than merely stay ahead of Cardiff?

We are about 9/1 to be relegated too. You are right that if we beat Man City we are more likely to finish in the top half. But that's reflected in the odds. Beating Arsenal and Huddersfield saw our relegation odds shift from 3/1 to 9/1, so - if you knew in advance we were going to win those games you could have trebled your money. The bookies think it's an 80% chance that we finish somewhere between 11th and 17th. That sounds about right to me.

This. His movement was also vital for an assist in an earlier game (was it that he dropped back and then slotted it to Armstrong?) Seems to find space in the box, just by shifting a yard or two.

In fairly recent years, although not the last few, the Skates. The 4-1 and 2-2 still annoy me. Should have won both.

I kind of assumed it was a bit more imaginative than just replacing one tiny segment....alas no.

What’s the lyrics to the Hasenhüttl/Last Xmas song?

Phew. A wave of optimism at last. Just need to keep this run going as long as possible. God knows when we last won 3 in a row?

Phew. A wave of optimism at last. Just need to keep this run going as long as possible. God knows when we last won 3 in a row?

Sounds a bit like the reintroduction of the late, unlamented, Intertoto Cup.

Same as last year, give or take a tiny %

Game over

Grrrrr

Is it likely to be on Tue 28th?

I always find it odd that when "underpaid and vital" jobs are listed, it always tends to be nurses and firemen, never sewage workers. But surely, having decent sanitation and a clean water supply is pretty damned vital? As others have said, salaries don't hinge merely on how "important" we consider a job to be, but crucially on how many people are able to carry out the task. If there are many millions of people who can, in theory, become nurses, this will mean nursing salaries aren't particularly high. Brain surgeons and top-flight footballers will be paid more - very few people are able to carry out the tasks needed for the job. If we started paying nurses £1mpa, we would - unsurprisingly - get way, way more applications to be a nurse than we need. The current system (basically letting the market sets wages) means people are incentivised to go and take jobs which are appropriate to their skills and where their unique skills are most highly valued by others.

This is total nonsense, really. It assumes attendance at home games only affects income. In fact, if your attendance is zero for every match, this is likely to be reflective of a wider problem. I'm pretty sure that if our average attendance last season was zero, we would have been relegated. That would have cost Saints tens of millions.

Not buying the "big 6-small 14" concept myself. 1. You have the tedious beast that is Everton. They are as close to a nailed on 7th every season as you could get. They are in the "probably get Europa League, definitely won't gte relegated" category. 2. I think Leicester are probably in that range too. Am not saying it's them and Everton in the top 8 as a nailed on guarantee, but I'd be surprised if they are in a relegation scrap.. 3. Something you can't see coming always upsets the established order. Obviously, Leicester winning the league at 5,000/1 was the extreme end. But something weird always happens. Burnley coming 7th last season and getting into Europe was hardly a mainstream prediction. Also, sometimes one of the big 6 implode - didnt Chelski finish tenth the season after they won the league (behind us?)

I'm going to bow to the praise on here. I must have simply missed something. I thought he was okay, but he didn't dazzle me. I was also expecting more bullet headers, seemed to me to nod the ball away sometimes. Ings and Redmond were the two who impressed me most. Romeu looked good in 442 as well.

Four Four Two magazine has us finishing 15th

This Saints team look terrific.

3 0 now Hey ho

2 0 Lawrence again

Comedy defending by Vestergaard, slides and misses the ball and man completely. Lawrence gets in one on one and scores.