Tommy Mulgrew

Totally dominant but lacked a cutting edge; we need to be more incisive and finish off teams such as Villa. I know it is difficult against a packed defence but we have to get better at shooting and getting behind defenders and not trying to walk the ball through the middle of a crowd of defenders. Poor mistakes at the back cost us and we were mugged. Gazza could have done more with the second goal but was not at fault with any of the three goals. Get behind him for heaven's sake. Yoshida had a bit of a mare but hasn't played for us all season. Why didn't he go to RB when Fonte came on? Fonte did well at RB and crossed well but would have been a better bet at CB. Cork was OK but lost the ball before Villa's second goal. We should have won and 9 times out of 10 would have. But we have been mugged before like this many times and never seem to learn from it. Naive against Chelski and naive again tonight. We have to be sharper all over the pitch to get anything from Citeh on Saturday. But even if we lose that game we shall still have done pretty well to be mid-table. I'm an optimist and I'm still sticking to a prediction of 8th at the end of the season. As ever, supporting Saints is so frustrating. But I'm enjoying it more than ever for over 50 years. COYS.

The BBC is now reporting GDP as out for the rest of the season. What a shame: I was hoping that after helping us to successive promotions he would score a goal in the EPL before returning to finish his career in Brazil and that now looks very unlikely. I hope he recovers fully. Also hope that later in the season we do not miss his contribution too much; with the progress some of the non-first-team academy players are making we look as though we can afford to have GDP not appearing for us again. Good luck to him anyway.

PDO seems to make Suarez look like a pussy cat; he's like Suarez, Keane (Roy), Barton and Savage rolled into a single person. Let's hope he behaves himself and fits in with our team spirit, which has evolved over the last few seasons into a considerable competitive advantage for us. If they haven't already, the favourites for the top half of the top half of the PL will certainly look at Saints in a different light now. Exciting times indeed but not too exciting, I hope!

McGrath in defence, Walker in midfield and Kirby up front.

Magnificent result, which we needed with Wigan winning. Multi-man MotM: the entire back four! Well done Saints. A couple of months ago I predicted 11th and I'm still sticking to it. Sunderland and Newcastle both lost. COYR.

excellent all-round team performance; not one bad performance in the whole side. we completely outplayed them for most of the game and with more clinical finishing, my only criticism of us today, we could have had six goals. well done everyone, including the subtitutes. difficult to pick one mom but for me it would have to be our alsatian frenchman.

superb all-round team performance, with everyone playing their part well. To see often as many as six of our players in city's half trying to get the ball back and doing so several times was amazing. I never thought I'd say it but I think we'll finish as high as 11th!

Ted Ditchburn

And he can tackle well: he robbed Fellani in the Everton match without fouling him; not many have done that recently. All he needs is a goal and his performance could well improve no end. Not many defenders can knock him off the ball (despite that happening once against Everton). He tracks back covering the opposing full-back better than anyone else we've got and he has carried out NA's and MP's orders to the letter: his surging runs against Everton were something we've not seen since last season. He certainly does not deserve the slating he gets from certain so-called fans. Without him we wouldn't be where we are now. In value-for-money terms, one of our best buys.

I've supported Saints since the 50s and the sacking is not remotely "saintly" but if you consider the toings and goings since Ted Bates and Laurie Mac perhaps it is in character. Cdertainly it is an expression of extreme ambition on NC's behalf. A day ago I thought relegation at last unlikely; now I know NC sees it as top four next year or bust and relegation completely unthinkable. I just hope we don't lose the tactical pragmatism that has seen us get some good results recently.

The furture's bright; the future's red and white!

I thought we had a really good game: right tactics bossing Arse in the middle of the park, a solid back four showing good spatial anticipation and both wide midfielders tracking back as well as forward in support of RL and GR; centre midfield closed theirs down like terriers. Boruc - 5 solid after a shaky start and a real character; mad as a hatter; not a lot to do 'cos we defended so well Cork - 8 as good an RB display defensively as you will see but no attacking threat Fonte - 8 one of his best games in the PL; covering well for others Yoshi - 8 ditto; well positioned and solid throughout; for me just shaded MotM Shaw - 7 not his best game but dealt well with AOC Morgan - 8 commanded the centre of the field Davis - 7 scurried around spoiling Arse's midfield; with MS, nullified Willshire and co Puncheon - 5 well below his best and sometimes seemed unsure where to run to or pass to; poor shooting - best one went straight to the keeper Gaston - 7 inventive and sometimes too clever for his teammates; good two "goals" GDP - 8 strong on the ball and closed Sagna down almost every time when the latter attacked; cracking 2nd half shot Lambert - 6 strong but too immobile; not at his best and never looked like scoring. Subs did OK but we lost our attacking threat and didn't look like scoring after GR, RL and GDP departed. GDP had to attack the Walcott free kick otherwise Koscielny would have got to it. Saints looked like the team challenging for Europe, not Arsenal. We deserved to win 2-1 and didn't deserve to have Gaston's little hand-off penalised (I originally thought it was for a wrongful off-side). Tactically spot-on. (I don't know what Ottery is talking about -sunny Devon indeed - OSM is only a few miles from here and it's been cloudy and raining or drizzling almost incessantly for as long as I can remember.) Five point cushion over Reading and QPR, one over Wigan and not far behind Villa and Newcastle. The future's bright; the future's red and white!

some wonderful names in the Fluminense squad!

Comment on MOTD about Rickie and how good he was against Stoke: "Huth is big and good but at times today he looked like he'd been in a car crash - that's how good Lambert was" or words to that effect from an experienced former PL defender.

BBC Sport gives plenty of suggestions for posssible January movers. And includes Lescott, who I've suggested before, and this: " DEDE (24, centre-back) Vasco da Gama Strapping Brazil centre-back, dominant in the air, quick across the ground, sound in the tackle and capable of playing out of defence. Club's financial crisis could force a sale." Sounds promising. Anyone know anything more about Dede?

Surely, unless Everton get him, Lescott fits the bill for an experienced Premiership CB, even ahead of Dawson. Citeh seem prepared to let him go and might even pay some of his wages if loaned out until the end of the season. No real idea how much it'd cost to buy him though. I hope we have enquired about him. Kjaer (spelling?) if we get someone in from Europe.

I’ve not seen mention on here of Barcelona’s willingness to give Ibrahim Afellay a run in the PL. He could be interesting for us as an international-standard winger.

Ron Vlaar is one of the few Dutch players who did well at Euro 2012. He is rated at more than £8m but a clause in his contract makes him available for £3.2m. His present wages are about £15,000 a week. Worth a look.

Pele

Complete lack of passion and commitment from the players and complete lack of tactical nous from the manager. I hope no other games are televised cos tonight was even worse than against the Skates. Everyone concerned needs to get their act together and ensure that we can cope with pressure on us.

Agree with CBF. MON and Mark Hughes are far more likely to interest Sunderland.

Defo a star, he opens up Championship defences with one instant pass like a hot knife through butter. He's so perceptive that I do believe he can do the same in the PL. He instantly knows the danger zone in or around the opposition's penalty area and, as the season progresses, more and more teammates are running into it to receive his (yet-to-be-released) pass, which instantly arrives - witness the one to Chaplow against the Posh. He does good defensively, too. I really hope he stays fit. I think he should start on the bench away in favour of SDR more often. Does he know anyone else plying their football trade in Italy and who would fit into the Saints team ethic?

He's certainly a star for us but does he have enough pace to succeed at a high level in the Premier League?

Lambert and Barnard can hopefully keep on banging in a few for us (and Lallana, Guly, AOC and Chaplow) but they stood out against ManUnited by being slow in body and mind. Forte apparently has plenty of pace and so solves part of that problem. He could prove to be a useful impact sub this year and grow into a potent squad member next year. Adkins knows him, his weakness and his potential; that's good enough for me.

We played very well but, strangely, ManU didn't pressurise us and our general quality was allowed to shine through. MOM as undoubtedly Spiderman: he would not have been out of place in a full MU side. Also excellent were Chaplow (but he has no pace ), Butterfield and Harding. Fonte was very good, as was Seaborne. Guly demonstrated he has a fine footballing brain and shone in patches but lapses of concentration made him sloppy at times. AOC and Bart were good. Barnard and Lambert tried hard but weren't really sharp enough against a PL reserve defence. I admired the plan to play AOC out of position but it did mean our right-field crosses all came from a fullback. And we had the good sense not to do our utmost to get a replay after their second goal. It would certainly have been good to play in front of the ManU home crowd but of course promotion is our main objective. Let's hope we can perform similarly against League 1 opposition for the rest of the season. Well played Saints. COYR