SaintBobby

Any update? Out v Arsenal?

Definitely want Bournemouth up. Although I doubt many Saints fans consider it a serious rivalry, I'd like some sort of neighbourly rival now Reading have sunk and the skates have disappeared.

The corporate section is a bit weird...technically, it's home fans only for the Saints bar/Channon section...but to say the rules are observed in the breach is an understatement. Against smaller teams, e.g. Yeovil in the cup, the MC usually makes a point of welcoming the away fans in the lounge.

Due to African Nations Cup, Newcastle will be missing some really key players on Jan 17th, no? And might Bony still be missing for Swansea on Feb 1st (or at least jet lagged?)

We should play the ball more to his chest. The way he can control the ball off his chest, often as an accurate one touch pass is quite amazing.

I'm going to return to a topic that comes up every now and again. Why is the Chapel end so absurdly quiet? I'm not into the whole Ultra thing, but if we moved (by offering a discount) 100 or so singers en bloc from the Northam end to the centre of the Chapel end, the atmosphere would improve markedly. Atmosphere yesterday was pretty good though, all in all.

Great point. About the hardest earned ever. Toby MotM for me, especially as he switched to right back with such ease.

For any bedwetters out there, Morgan is on the 555pm train from Soton to London with two very good looking women, his agent and lots of packed luggage. Has at least shut up the Chelsea fans who seem a bit surprised he's travelling 2nd class!

The Mrs has bailed out of today's game, so I have one spare (season) ticket for today's game in the Saints bar if anyone interested. Seat is towards the back of the Itchen, very close to the halfway line. Face value is £80 - but happy to accept £60 or nearest offer. PM me if interested.

Errrr..given Bertrand and Clyne are the lynchpins of the 352 system, having one or both of them absent would be a good reason to change the formation, surely?

Wild guess here, but I'm guessing the so-called smaller clubs are more likely to provoke a sacking. I mean, being sacked for failing to win at Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge must be a bit unusual....unless your name is Nigel Adkins....

I'm not confident. Have even made Costa my fantasy football captain. For which I'm now feeling rather guilty.

Radio 5 reporting that Crystal Palace "twitched first" in the managerial sack race...surely QPR are next...:-)

Going back a bit further....didn't we get Hoddle sacked after winning 3-1 at Spurs...and back further still, didn't Matty get Ron Atkinson sacked?

It's total garbage. We have a 72% chance of beating Chelsea? Mental.

I thought Fonte was absolutely brilliant. He got my MoM vote. I would say "flawless", but I missed his yellow card somehow.

Epic trolling, made it to page 2. Impressive. Truly impressive.

Surely time for Shane????

Niggly game. Sort of match Shane Long could change to our advantage...

Six pointer :-)

Amazed by the feedback on here. I watched it on Sky and thought we were quite good. Not great. But quite good. 6.5/10 ish.

Not sure about that. I can see a scenario in which we challenge regularly for the top 6 (although as dark horses, most likely). This season, however, represents a very rare opportunity to snatch a place in the top 4 because so many of the big clubs seem to be struggling/rebuilding/in transition. You might expect this to be the case for one or two of the top clubs each year, but to have all of Man Utd, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool appearing well below par - along with Everton and Man City looking less than their best, is very unusual indeed.

CB Fry is right, of course, that doing marginally better than the 5th placed team has done is not a recipe for coming 4th. It's a recipe for coming 5th and edging the 5th placed team down to 6th. That said, predictions made on his erroneous basis might end up being right for the wrong reasons. With the exception of Chelsea, the "usual suspects"(i.e. the rest of he "big 7") really look desperately poor this season. One aside - doesn't the 4th place (and maybe from next season even the 3rd place) club go into a one-off knockout? Our reward for finishing 4th could end up being no more than losing a two-legged contest to Seville or Galatasaray or Ajax....

We have secured 16 points from our six home games so far. (2.67 points per game) If your prediction is right, we'd get 20 pts from out next 13 home games. (1.54 per game). If we are to finish in the top four, we will need to (continue to) be near perfect home IMHO

I'm cheering on Man City and Chelsea in every match - we have no chance in finishing above either of them. So, I want them to beat United, Liverpool, Spurs, Everton etc. I think we do have a slim chance of 3rd or 4th - but think 7th is most likely outcome.