S-Clarke

Bourinho has killed them. He is so past it as a manager, not capable of adapting to the modern game.

Bournemouth should have won that. They've gone now I think, bar the officialness.

I think we can pretty much write off any wins at Goodison, ever. Just exclude this game from any pre-season predictions and assume a non-win! If we had Messi out there, we still wouldn't win here. We played well enough 1st half, should have been out of sight. We had them opened up so many times, they couldn't handle our movement. Penalty miss was unfortunate, ings header was unfortunate, but we had so many opportunities and if it wasn't Goodson we'd have come away with another 3-1, easily. It's because it's Goodson that we can't, some sort of force field in front of the away goal or something. 2nd half we tired, which is so not surprising. So much effort has been put in over the last couple of weeks! Onto the next one, not expecting anything from that if I'm honest, but we've got 3 games after Man Utd where we can hopefully end with a nice positive bounce.

Don't think Europe has ever really been an option, top half would require us to probably win our remaining games. I reckon we'll finish where we are - 12th, 13th. Between 46-49 pts. Wouldn't have said that back in November.

It's the default thing to say when you're losing every week. The reality is that this league is where it all is. There's no easy way back for them, long, long road and lots of financial problems.

I don't really pay much attention to anything Garth says, he speaks absolute bollocks on a consistent basis. Jack in any team of the weak was a no brainer, it's not like he had to put much thought into it. I wouldn't call any accolades from Garth as high praise!

What do you mean by 'Fragility' ? I think Armstrong is absolutely perfect for the press in the oppo half of the pitch. Wouldn't be dropping him any time soon.

He's got a better attitude than Barkley, but Barkley has that pace and strength over him. I'm fairly confident that he's a level or two above bloody Delph though!

I think it's a bit harsh to compare him to Matt Oakley, I liked Matt but he was pretty average truth be told. JWP has something a little bit more in his locker and after this season I'm sure bigger clubs will be sniffing. What I think let's JWP down and one of the reason's he's still here, is his lack of pace and power. No problems with his football brain or football technique, it's right up there. Not much he can do about that his lack of pace, but he still gets around the ground more than anyone else. That's why I think we struggle sometimes - if he's played in the middle without any physicality, he gets overwhelmed a bit. We were lucky when we had Wanyama and Morgan through the middle, spoilt in fact.

Both teams looked awful, I think Everton were just dragged into the bilge Spurs produced though, and what they often produce now days. Another Mourinho masterclass. They can't stick with him, he'll kill everything MP built (he probably already has tbf)

What a wonderful week.

I wasn't as worried as I thought I'd be, it was one of those nights. I thought it was a bit too close if I'm honest, maybe 5-10 yards further out and it could have been different. It really was reminiscent of Leeds away in the Champ, but this was against one of the best tika-taka teams in the world.

The commentators said that they don't believe Man City have ever been dispossessed as much as they were yesterday, we were on it from min 1 to min 95. I agree that we were pushed back 2nd half, but first half it was a really good advertisement of the press and how to execute it well against a proper tika-taka style team.

Yeah, people are saying to me that they were on the edge of their seats in the last few mins - one of them doesn't even really follow football, others aren't fans of Southampton. I think we got ourselves a big neutral fan base after yesterday! We've certainly been one of the best teams to watch since the return, IMO.

That's usually the sort of wording they use when it's an option to buy, doesn't sound like a set arranged transfer like we had with Ings, more of an option if they are able to. Could be all sorts of requirements around it though - only kicks in if they get promoted etc, but it sounds like they have an option of sorts. Would be interested to know what we valued him at. Obviously it's still relying on him agreeing to move their on a perm though, he doesn't have to. He could have plenty of suitors.

I didn't realise that. I wonder how much?

He's certainly a reliable member of the team, and was pretty epic last night. But for me - he's one of the players we genuinely need to improve upon if we want to go further than we are. He lacks the mobility and speed to get around the pitch with this high press style, he's a great option to have around the place but I'd like to see us trying to improve on him if we can. It's up to him if he fancies being a member of the squad, but he may move on this summer IMO.

Everton away, we never win there. But this is a weird season, so who knows.

I don't think we'd have held out if he was on the pitch today. We've been in similar positions over the last couple of years at home, and he just goes to pot. I remember one game in particular, 90 odd mins, needed a calm clearance from the back and he just launched it straight up in the air and put us in the shit. He's not a terrible player, but he's not someone we're going to miss that much.

There was a funny feeling in the air about this game, just something niggling in the back of my head 'We don't win at home, City just score for will''......and the rest writes it's self. We were always going to need bucket loads of luck and boy did we have that, but...you make your own luck. Through blocks, harrying, hassling, pressing...it was a proper backs to the wall performance, I love those sorts of wins more than any other to be honest. The players look like they have bought into Ralph's style more than ever, everyone is in sync, everyone knows their jobs and the press is the most well executed I've seen - even better than the MP days. (we just lack a little bit of the quality from those days). Stephens has gone from being average as hell to what he is today. A very competent, strong, powerful premier league centre half. I still hope we bring in another CB to give both him and Jan some competition, but any new addition will need to be a bit of a world beater to oust either of those today. KWP was good, but what worried me was how Silva pulled on him - a couple of times - at the back post, his lack of height was being exposed at times - but technically he's very capable, but he did panic a little in the 2nd half with some clearances. We resumed the league a couple of weeks ago and we were sat on 34 points, still looking over our shoulders a tiny bit. Now we're on 43 points and 13 points clear, and unreal return from us. Something looks to have clicked fitness wise and tactically over the last few months. It looks like everyone at the club have been working their arses off and results like this are the proof.

Why be bothered about being mathematically safe? We were safe in Feb.

Yeah, Jamal - that's the fella! https://www.goal.com/en/news/11/transfer-zone/2011/08/05/2606827/tunisias-ammar-jemal-pulls-out-of-southampton-move

It's crazy isn't it - when you look at Villa and you can only really pin point Grealish that may attract real interest, yet Villa are the team who spent £160m on new talent in the summer! #fail.

Brighton winning @ Norwich. Pretty much secures Brighton if they see it out, and it removes any faint hope Norwich may have had. Shit result for those below West Ham really, looking quite bleak for Bournemouth particularly.

Eliott Ward and we were linked to another foreign centre back in our first season back in the Championship, it fell through due to us not wanting to fund some sort of loyalty bonus, but I cannot for the life of me remember his name