Kingsland Codger

For those who were at the match - well done, lads. http://wbaunofficial.org.uk/showthread.php?tid=12585

Yes indeed - what was the quote I remember from one of the journalists a few seasons back ... something like "a season ticket at St Mary's is one of football's glittering prizes" and now I suspect there are many who are wondering, survive or not, if they will renew their ST next season. As for a new manager - anyone half-decent (say, Gordon Strachan or Mark Hughes or several others) must be champing at the bit to take over. The current squad have the talent but they lack any cohesion. Just a few tweaks here and there and a revert to the tactics of the blindingly obvious and the new manager would enter Saints history books as the guy who saved us from relegation. And if they were unsuccessful, well they took over too late, can't be blamed for what happened earlier. Despite everything, we are still in with a good shout of surviving as long as we change things. Only 3 teams can go down and there are what, 8 or 9 in the mix. If the new manager gets us to stay up we can start thinking about glittering prizes again but if MP stays I can only fear the worst.

One other thing - was VAR available/being used today? I gather it was used regularly at Anfield this evening and wonder if it was used to check on the push on Boufal in the second-half which looked a clear penalty.

I was at the game and agree about Pied; was very pleasantly surprised with how well he played. Also agree with the assessment of saintsmike25 (apart from his view on Pied) - we should have been well ahead at half-time.

It isn’t just a sport. It is a business.

I am confident we have the players to stay up. I am concerned in equal measure that we don't have a team good enough to stay up. A new manager (more-or-less anybody will be better than the current incumbent) could turn things around quite quickly. Sadly, after Mr Kreuger's interview yesterday, a change of manager seems unlikely. On the bright side, only three clubs can be relegated and there are several other candidates who may be worse than us.

Why Yoshida in particular rather than Stevens? As I saw it, it was a peach of a cross that should have been stopped at source.

There were times yesterday when Arsenal were in possession and they passed it around superbly. Very slick, neat and a joy to watch. Then Saints had the ball and guess what? We passed the ball around superbly and we were every bit as slick and neat as they were. But for all the pretty football from Arsenal, the passing and moving, the tiki-taka style, they just went sideways across our penalty area and didn't threaten too much. Whereas Saints made several openings, made the Arsenal defence look all over the place, had the best scoring opportunities and should have won. Happy with the point, a bit miffed it wasn't all three ... but very pleased we now look entertaining. Something we have been missing for the last eight or nine months.

Down here in the Deep South we are basking in balmy temperatures. Dreading the trip North. At least the ferries are running on time.

He seemed to be more the victim than the sinner. from around 1.20

Neither side looked like winning in the second-half - further, neither side looked they wanted to win. Both were too afraid to lose.

Long scored a header from a corner against WBA on 31 December 2016 - almost a year later than the commentator suggested.

Looking at things from the other end of the telescope let's find reasons to be cheerful. If our attack is so bad, it must mean our defence is superb. And if we can't score at home, our away record must be stunning.

We'll all have our favourite SRL goal - probably several. Here's one of mine, a free kick against Tranmere. 1:05 for the free kick but it's worth seeing the full clip as the two earlier goals are pretty neat; one of them an SRL penalty.

The news that significantly more viewers watched Cardiff play Leeds than saw Spurs or Manchester City play in the UCL might make some think again. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/more-viewers-watch-cardiff-than-spurs-or-man-city-mngdwn9nt

Yes. V WBA on Newyearseve. The winner for WBA was a terrific strike worthy of winning any game. A pity it was against us.

My daughter lives in Hokkaido, more-or-less directly under the flight path of said missile. She emails to tell me she was awoken by her mobile phone sounding an alert which she assumed was for an earthquake as Japanese smartphones have an in-build alert for natural disasters. Shortly after this the town alert was broadcast over the tannoy with the population being told to go to the evacuation area or go to a concrete building. My daughter has a garage made of concrete so she went there and about 5 minutes later there was a stand-down/all-clear alert broadcast. She says it was more confusing than scary with most of the neighbours grumbling about being woken up so early - but should it happen again then there may be more panic as the concept of a missile strike is now uppermost in people's thoughts. My own fatherly instincts came out quite swiftly. She may be 32 years old but ... NOBODY UPSETS MY LITTLE GIRL! Mr Kim won't be getting a Christmas card from me. That'll teach him.

Sadie Mane's hat-trick against Aston Villa May 2015

If we don't count the own goal scored by Peter Chec at The Emirates last season after Tadic hit the bar (and we shouldn't count it as his shot was off-target) then, yes, JWP vs West Brom was the last time ... and the last time before that? SRL v Stoke in the Spring of 2014, I think, though I would be happy to be corrected. In no particular order we have seen Davis, Tadic, JWP, Alderweirald, VvD, Yoshida and probably several others try their luck. All have come close but how we miss someone like SRL who would score as often as miss. Opponents who are hanging on to a win or a draw might well be thinking it is no bad thing to concede a late free-kick against Saints. Organising the wall and Saints discussing amongst themselves as to who will take it would take up a good minute of time.

Really? I thought the poor guy had a stinker. Those two 'shots' in the second half were so unlike his previous accuracy. We know he can do so much better. I'd be genuinely interested to know what I missed about his play today.

Sorry, *Stephens*.

Not sure why you think clean sheets might be a rarity. The facts are last season ... PL games with VvD we played 22 with 8 clean sheets and without him we played 16 with 6 clean sheets. It could be argued the figures were 21.5 with 7.5 vs 16.5 with 6.5 as he came off in the Leicester game shortly after half-time. The figures suggest we should not underestimate the Yoshida and Stevens pairing.

A friend.

From the YouTube clips I have seen, he appears to have the vision of Schneiderlin, the balance of Eden Hazard, the sheer 'oomph' of Wanyama and the pace of Shane Long. What's not to like?