Saint_Tony

Both sides near enough full strength. Should be a good game. No excuses, we need to get at least a point today

Forget those stats, only us scoring more goals than City today will matter. It's time for us to make a statement and show we are serious top 4 contenders. Never been so nervous, this is our biggest game in years. Last season we were knocking on the door, now it's time to properly gatecrash the party. COYR!

I won't be in panic mode. Just that I'd prefer a top 4 finish, something to remember. If we get a result tomorrow, it becomes a realistic possibility. I feel defeat will send us on our way back down to 7th/8th.Whilst we played well last season, finishing 8th was a waste of time. It's a perfectly acceptable position, but let's try and make performances and results count for something this season.

The other sides are creeping up on us in the table. As well as we've done, tomorrow is our biggest game in years. We need to get a positive result and make a statement that we are serious top 4 contenders.

We weren't great last night against Villa, City are playing one of the top 3 teams in the world tonight. We will more than likely lose to City, but a draw or better would be an absolutely incredible achievement.

It was poor last night, but Villa had a lot of bodies back in the box. It's strange how we finally have a game on sky and fail to turn up. Must leave neutrals wondering how we are 2nd. Great opportunity to put things right on Sunday

Ended up being a good point. Villa are poor, but they were very committed. Just one of those nights, I'm sure we will improve against City. We certainly won't be finishing top 4 now.

Just not happening tonight. Still, it was clear we weren't going to keep winning every week. Need to focus now on the City game

We are long overdue a defensive error. Just not going to be our night. We were bossing possession, but Villa will be happy to keep sitting back now. Will be amazed if we even score.

There can be no excuses for not winning tonight, Villa 1-3 Saints 3 (Pelle, Long, Mane)

4/1 for a Villa win,that's got to be the biggest price a home team has ever been against us in the Premier League. Everything points to a Saints win though. Any news on the potential injuries to Schneiderlin and Tadic?

Schneiderlin to Spurs £25 million Wanyama to Arsenal £18 million Clyne to Man Utd £20 million J Rod to Spurs £15 million Pelle to Liverpool £12 million Tadic to Liverpool £18 million Forster to Liverpool £15 million

Clyne starts, about time. He really has a great opportunity to make that right-back slot his own for the next few years. Just a shame that he won't be playing for us. Ridiculous that Bertrand didn't make the squad to.

Exactly, the same happened this time last year. We simply don't have the same squad depth as the likes of Arsenal, Man City and Utd. We will soon realise why we can't possibly finish in the top 4. Let's just hope Morgan is ok for Villa. If him and Davis are out we'll be severely weakened in midfield

We have no excuses for not getting at least a point. Villa will battle hard, but ultimately lack quality. A draw would be acceptable but we need to be winning games like this

Check his history? lol, do people actually do that?

Great weekend for us. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, as much as we love to laugh at their expense, the likes of Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool will start picking up points. I think some people are getting their hopes up too much. We are in a very strong position for now, but let's take it one game at a time. We're not the only team in this league capable of going on a big winning run

I'd guess around 72. So we're looking at another 47 points from 27 games, which still looks incredibly tough. 14 wins, 5 draws and 8 defeats. Swap a couple of wins for draws and we're looking at 6th and 7th, the margins are so fine. For now, we are top 6 contenders, but 4th isn't anything worth thinking about too much, we need to get at least 12 points from the next 7 games to stay in contention

Think they will scrape a win, but fair play to QPR who are giving it a real go

Even City lack squad depth on all areas, Kompany is a massive loss to them. Mangala doesn't look convincing at all, perhaps it's the pressure. Chelsea are the best side in this league by some distance, and so far it's hard to argue against us being second best

This is the turning point. A game in which we were struggling, and have managed to change things around. The sign of a great side. Delighted for Long. We are now genuine top 6 contenders.

I think 4 points from the next 2 games is a necessity in order to give us a cushion before the city/ars/utd games. But then let's not assume we won't get any points from those games. I'd hope for 2/3, a couple of draws would probably still keep us in 4th.

Our best hope for top 6 is for 2 teams from everton, liverpool and spurs to drop off the pace. Let Chelsea run away with it, even a draw against Liverpool would be a decent result for us. Everton put out a strong side last night so hopefully they might struggle too

To be fair, he said that they lost the game, so Rodgers did get it wrong, regardless of the performance

Doubt it would happen, but if the chance arose it would be stupid not to take him back as a back up for Pelle. This squad will be stretched, and whatever some think of him now, I have no doubt he would still score goals here. There are very few available proven premier league goalscorers, and whatever's going on with him at Liverpool, he hasn't turned 5hit overnight.Could be the difference between finishing in or outside the top 6