NewYorkSaint

Yup. It's been a terrific season. Results aside, the style of play has been an absolute joy to watch. Fingers crossed for the summer. We will probably know a lot more within a week. I would hate to lose Lallana.

Great watching this live in the US. Saints completely dominant. Wanyama superb. Has won the ball so many times. Lallana incredible. Rickie and Luke also having wonderful games in front of Hodgson. More goals to come.

Football's such a strange game. We played the same fast-touch passing game we've made our trademark. In many other games this season we dominated on possession, style, passion... and still fail to win. Today the luck mostly went our way. Beautiful to see. Davis, Wanyama, Clyne and Shaw were fantastic. Lambert shining in his playmaker role. As a side note, football needs a new solution for unintentional handball in the box. Penalty is too harsh... but you also can't just wave play on. I think there should be a freekick from the nearest edge of the box to the handball. As things stand there's no consistency.

Great first half. Saints' passing play a joy as always. Wanyama a couple of spectacular tackles. Gallagher starting to looking promising... he's winning the ball in 50-50 situations. Lallana, Cork, Davis, Lambert great interplay. Shaw and Clyne looking terrific. We're THAT close to a champions league team....

There's another interpretation of these stats. You can make the case that Saints have this season deliberately adopted a blitzkrieg approach. We enter games at full pelt. Does anyone have stats on how many goals scored in first 30 mins compared to other teams? I suspect across the season it's pretty high. We terrify teams in opening part of the game. Lallana, Schneiderlin and others flying at full pace. It's incredible to watch, and it's often seen us take the lead when others had no expectation that we would. Then in 2nd half we pay the price. Overall, I think the strategy has worked - hence equal highest ever league position - though I also think there's a case for more nuanced version of it that saves a little more energy for later in the game. I don't think you can argue that we're weak psychologically. In games where we've gone a goal down against top teams we've often come flying back impressively. I think it's more about energy management.

There was real injustice here. That blatantly offside goal simply shouldn't be allowed in a modern league. It changed the game... On the plus side, when you look at how superbly we competed against the most expensive team in the premier league: add back our main goalkeeper, another great striker, and a little more squad depth, and we should be able to make something special happen next year. (Unless, they buy away Lallana and Shaw. Please no.) Schneiderlin, Davies and Cork are as good a midfield as the PL has. Amazing to see them take over today. Our confidence and class, even a goal down away at City, was something beautiful to behold. We go away heads held high.

This is why the Premier League HAS to introduce some kind of video review when a goal is scored unfairly. Allow each side 2 challenges per game. It's crazy to allow an injustice like that offside goal with all the technology we have. Personally, incredibly proud of the team. Yeah Fonte was nervous and blew it. Yeah Boruc might have saved at least one of those. But the comeback from the team in the circumstances was sensational. They completely outplayed City for 40 minutes of the half. Lambert... what a half. JRod... heartbreaker. Whatever the result now, I'm proud to support an incredible team.

Having seen the United game earlier, you have to say we're a better team. They're 6 points ahead. There has to be a real scenario now where a win against them in the last game of the season takes us above them to Saints highest ever premier league position. We just need to catch up 4 of those points before then...

Incredible team performance. Luke and Callum both superb. The one touch play between Davis, Lallana, JRod, Cork, JWP... so beautiful to watch. Rickie imperious. Lovren and Fonte rock solid. Gaston, nice cameo. My man of match Lallana again. He must start for England. Must. Must. Must.

Question will be whether we can sustain our game intensity, or fade second half as has happened recently. It's not necessarily a criticism. Just a consequence of the incredible blitz we put on in every first half.

What a fantastic half. Saints so exhilarating to watch. Just amazing build-up play. And Chambers rocked. Getting better and better.

Fantastic first half. Our brand of football as exhilarating as anything in the premier league.

Crazy game. Happy for Sam. Happy for Rickie. Worried about Dejan. Morgan MOTM.

Fantastic game. Whether we win, draw or lose, you have to take a moment to appreciate how cool it is to support a team who play such beautiful football. Lallana is pure genius. Luke brilliant, exciting. So many players had great touches. Superb to watch.

I predict 2-2. We'll have to come back at them in last 20 mins. Ramirez to score the equalizer coming in off the bench. Wonderful to Lovren back. Hope he's not rusty. Will be challenging game for him.

I think by 90/10, he means 90% chance of going... not 10%. I agree with THOSE odds.

There were a few terrific moments, and on another day result could have gone the other way. Luke Shaw played some exciting football. Lallana his usual genius... except, um, when it actually mattered. But the huge positive was Gaston. If you imagine Lovren back at heart of the defense and Gaston now firing on all cylinders, and there could yet be some wonderful results in our future. But overall, incredibly disappointing.

For me, the main problem wasn't the team selection (though that was certainly puzzling and troubling), it was that the players themselves lacked all their usual fire. But even at 60-70 minutes into the game, I wasn't that worried. it seemed obvious they would simply step it up, and at a minimum take an equalizer from a team they were clearly better than. What I think made everyone tear their hair out is that there was no increase in intensity as the game wore on. No captain chivvying his mates to get in and fight for victory. No manager urging on from the touchline. Just a bizarre lethargy ...and a growing number of inexplicable mistakes. I found myself wondering last night whether the whole team had been out drinking the night prior. They just weren't their usual selves. I would love to hear from some more of the senior players explaining what they think happened. And given the reaction here, and elsewhere, MoPo would be wise to consider acknowledging that the club let the fans down on this one.

That was very, very, very strange. It looked as if they truly didn't want to win. Every single player was misplacing passes, mucking up. Was the pitch covered in molasses? Did MoPo offer them a bonus to lose so that we had no risk of entering the Europa League? It's just makes no sense.

You know it's a bad day when even Lallana keeps giving it away. Sigh...

So pleased to see Wanyama do well. Very, very strong... and I didn't see a misplaced pass from him. Bring on JRod and Cork for Guly and JWP, add a touch of MoPo inspiration and we'll cruise this.

No Cork or Schneiderlin. That's biggest gamble, I think. They've been Saints engine for much of the past 2 years. Davis, JWP, Wanyama strong alternatives, of course. And if we're not owning midfield, I guess one or both come in 2nd half. Disappointed Gallagher still out. We'll need JRod on before the 2nd half gets too old.

Wonderful team performance. We never stopped pressing. So many beautiful one-touch passing moves. With a more clinical striker, no knowing what this team could do. Davis had a terrific game. But I also liked the midfield on at the end: Wanyama, Cork, Spider. Would love to see that combo start sometime. Could easily see us finish 6th or 7th.

I'd have liked to have seen Isgrove given 10 mins at the end. If I remember aright from preseason, he has astonishing pace. We needed to shake things up somehow.

Crazy conditions out there. It's got into everyone's heads. V v strange game. I'm going for 5-3 Saints after going behind! Glorious confidence builder for Lambert. Would love to see another from him.