Saint_Tony

Nor can I, even with the level of form we are showing now I think 7th is the very highest we can achieve and that's a very tall order. I can imagine Cortese has targetted top 6 this season, and anything less than tenth will be unacceptable, even more so given our start. Realistically there's more chance of MP getting sacked than leaving to go to a bigger club

I think we'd need to finish top 6 this season for anyone better than ourselves to make an approach for him.

Clyne made Garth Crooks' (yes I know, terrible pundit) team of the week, in which he has recommended him for an England call up

Think we will scrape a 2-1. 3 very winnable games as mentioned. Will we win all 3? Highly unlikely. I would be happy enough with 5 points from these fixtures

Can't see Clyne getting picked. Richards is back in the frame at City, have always rated him and can see him getting back in the England squad. Shaw is just unfortunate in that we have 2 quality left backs already. Baines is absolute class, such a shame Roy doesn't have a similar selection dilemma in other positions. Lallana has a chance of being called up, but will really have to take his chance in the same way Townsend has. Hopefully Cleverley will disappear from Hodgson's plans, he has failed miserably on the international stage. We seem to have a lot of central midfielders so JWP has a limited chance too. Hopefully with our rise up the table, other fans and the media will see what a fantastic group of English players we have. Right now, they are performing better than Jones, Smalling, Cleverley etc as we as playing regularly. Roy won't be able to ignore them if we keep up this sort of forn though

Are we all going to moan about MOTD on the last day of the season when we get a 'lucky' one nil win against United, scoring our 'only' chance despite 20 shots on goal,to pip them for fourth place?

No Rio or Vidic for United. I mentioned playing J Rod, but looking at United's defence maybe Lambert would have been the right option, we shall see ...

Can't see us getting anything today, think the luck will be with United, can see Rooney getting a couple and a Van Persie pen. Think we should start J Rod, need some pace up top as Rio was completely shown up against West Brom, he's well past it, Vidic has been unconvincing this season as well.

Because it's not realistic, our squad isn't at the level of the 'big 6' yet, it's as simple as that. Our start has been very positive but we can't expect to keep it up. We're a work in progress. It's perfectly fine to talk about Champions League and targets for the season, but it's not going to happen overnight and certainly not this season. And we don't 'have to ship goals' but it's going to happen at some point and in my opinion it'll be next weekend.

For me it's the cost. Went to the West Ham game, £43.50 ticket and £18 on the train. Add in a few beers and food and you're looking at £100+. The whole matchday experience has essentially become a luxury item. I can't see myself going to more than another 2 games this season. Sadly, the pub and online streaming are more financially viable options

Yes, we have an undeniably excellent defensive record, but Swansea had a lot of chances on Sunday and on another day it could easily have been a different scoreline. I'd love nothing more than another 2 0 victory, but this sort of form won't last forever, and we need to accept that at the season goes on.

Quite clearly due a defeat and United will pick up soon, 4-1(Rooney x2, Nani, Fellaini, Rodriguez) I'm afraid. No shame in losing to them despite their current league position. Fulham the week after is far more important, just worried that they might have a new manager in place by then

Nothing wrong with dreaming, but dreams rarely come true! Think we need to calm down the threads on 4th place/champions league, provides too much ammo when we finish 11th for Turkish et. al to proclaim that the entire forum said we'd finish 4th. It's a natural reaction to get excited, we're football fans so why shouldn't we! Next few games look a lot tougher, there's no such thing as an easy start, and we certainly didn't pick up as many points from the same fixtures last year ( lost at West Brom, Liverpool and home to Sunderland). I can see maybe 6 or 7 points from the next 6 games, but to go into Christmas with 20 + points will be good progress. I'd imagine the aim of the club now might be 60 points. Is it achievable? Still too early to say

Well I hope to be proved wrong, my predictions have generally been correct so far this season. I think this game is the one that will be the biggest indicator so far as to what we can achieve this season.

Don't think we're capable of winning this unfortunately, we're not at the same level as Swansea are yet. Saints 1-2 Swansea, Bony, De Guzman and a Lambert penalty for us. No disgrace losing to them in my opinion

Get more points this season than at least 16 other teams

I'd expect a defeat next week, just to bring us back down to earth. I think 8th-10th should be a target, I still believe the likes of Swansea and Everton are a level above us. Would love to be proved wrong though. We're certainly building solid foundations, yesterday I wasn't worried one bit about not winning the game once we were 2 up, which makes a change. Will be interesting once we start playing some of the top sides (I do not include Liverpool in that). There's no reason we can't get a few points off of then. Let's just try and keep calm when we come unstuck against a few teams below us

Lambert and Osvaldo just isn't working. Oh hold on....

Can't see us scoring tonight, had a bet on City at a decent price. I don't mind making a few changes, but not a whole side. I don't buy into this 'keep them fresh' ********, we played midweek most weeks in the championship and that worked out ok

I'd be happy enough with 10 points from that, but we've been here before with a nice run of fixtures, and failed to capitalise. This is why we aren't close to being a top 6 side yet. More likely outcome will be a disappointing 6-7 points. Followed by a few 'MP out' threads. We're still very much a work in progress though, got to keep working towards a top half finish

What a result!Just had a good feeling about today, something to do with the black kit as strange as it sounds. Can we keep some level headedness about this on here please? Don't want anybody upsetting the WUMs.Let's enjoy it though until the next game

Shame there's so long left, we can't win, can we?

No, unacceptable if we fail to score again, even if it is against Liverpool. Got a feeling we can nick a win. I assume we will be playing in black tomorrow?

Don't get everyone's problem. If I was a Liverpool fan I'd expect them to beat us, and as a Saints fan I'd expect them to beat us comfortably. Our limitations have already been exposed this season. Forum meltdown soon to take place when Lawro predicts a 2-0 home win.

It's almost like we're using West Ham being a 'horrible side' as an excuse for our own failings