We were unfortunate with situations today. To start lovren was out for me our best player this season and our tony Adams and John terry with flair. As Gary neville pointed out he's the leader than organises our defence. Then the goalie making an horrendous mistake was again unfortunate. Undoing a bit of the good work he's done. If bayern or barca conceded like that against a pretty much full strength arsenal team they'd struggle. However, our response to it was brilliant. Controlling the game due to imperious wanyama and Morgan and ward prowse was causing problems with his crossing and energy. Unfortunately we couldn't create a really good chance. Clyne as good as he was made a great run but should of put the cross in early to the unmarked rickie to make it 1-1.
Rickie had a poor game for me. U can forgive him not outpacing people but I do expect him to make a nuisance of himself with the quality of ward prowse crossing and play the right pass when in possession. I feel at home he's playing quite well but away not doing enough. Anyway, shaw going off meant we lost him, had to move clyne to the left, although he did v well wasn't his position and only had one full back for them to focus on. It also meant that ward prowse couldn't cause problems with his crossing and had to defend. Wanyama and Morgan didn't give ozil and carols a kick but Steven Davis didn't have his best game for us and didn't make impact. Osvaldo tried hard but I'm still not convinced he's the singing we needed. Should have been someone like lukaku for me. Hope I'm wrong. Still early days for him. J rod played well without creating anything really. Great shift though.
Finally, the penalty given was a pen by law but it's hardly ever given so I think we again were unfortunate and of course arsenal couldn't break us down from open play with a weakened defence. Overall, I think that saints first eleven are a top six outfit however the squad (particularly without cork and gaston and guly on the bench) are probably around 12th. Jeff StellingJeff said saints back 6 have started more games than any other back six this season, so we've been lucky with injuries so far. We won't be that lucky all season so with a bit of luck and a bit further investment I think 8th is realistic this season. The club then has to make a decision if they want to invest significantly to be 6th or 5th and then even more to challenge for chamions league. Still we had more possession at the emirates , v rare and did v well. Just a bit unlucky with circumstances. Villa for me is key as v tough at chelsea and think we need to take 4 from villa and city at home. We have great manager.
