NewYorkSaint

"England ace Adam Lallana".... Gotta love the Sun. Not a lot. But gotta love them. Often wrong, but never in doubt. Congrats, Adam. We've known you were ace for a long time. Please don't consider United. We need you here.

Fox, Hooiveld. With the exception of Lovren, this is a team we could have fielded a year ago. Nervous.

Spurs (H) - W 2-1 Cardiff (A) - W 0-1 Everton (A) - L 2-0 Chelsea (H) - W 2-1 West Brom (H) - W 5-1 Sunderland (A) - D 2-2 Arsenal (H) - D 1-1 Fulham (W) - D 0-1 15 points. You're welcome.

Or Schneiderlin. Or Boruc. Or Wanyama.

Frustrating/exciting in equal measures. Defence looks sooo fragile with Jos and Gazza. JRod getting better every game. Davis, Cork outstanding. We really need Lallana fit and playing. He's so core to our creativity and even to our ability to rapidly win the ball back. It often starts with him. Chambers such a great prospect. Lovren fantastic. Rickie and Ossie disappointed. 1-1 a fair result on the day, but I think we'll end up above them when all's said and done.

This is exactly what I argued for back at the start of the season. Reclaim the Morgan/Jack combo in a 41221 formation and let Vic be the rock in front of the back four. It does mean JWP and Davis on the bench, though. Truth is we have a lot of great options.

Such a great game. The Osvaldo haters put away for a while. There will be more where that came from. Whole team just awesome today. We absolutely deserved to win. Lallana incredible today. Cork fantastic. He was my personal MoM for coming back after a season on the bench and a mistake on Weds. But Luke, Davis, JRod, Lovren... all wonderful. And Chambers is exciting to watch. What a team! We'll be top 8 come end of season. And maybe top 6 or better.

Epic first half. Epic. So proud of how we're playing.

Put me among the optimists. I predict: - at least one spectacular save from Gazza - a break out performance from Osvaldo - terrific battling effort from Jack Cork - dazzling game for Lallana Torpedos be damnned. I'm going for 2-2.

Some of the comments above don't seem logical to me. How do you blame Gazz for not having made a save this season when the only opposition he faced produced only 3 (lethal) shots on goal? Most commentators/watchers have agreed he was not to blame for those. I'm worried about the injuries, esp Wanyama, but Chambers has proved fantastic cover for Clyne, if need be, and Cork was one of our players of the season last time, and is likely to come good with a little more playing time. Osvaldo showing real signs of coming good. What better stage for him than Man City? Football has a huge chance element. The wailing that's going on here is like criticizing a poker player who loses after going all in with A-K against 4-6. We gave ourselves every chance to win yesterday. Just didn't happen. I think Man C may get a nasty shock Sat.

Watching on NBC in the US, with 15 mins to go, the commentator was saying "Surely only one team can win this. It has to be Southampton. They have been utterly dominant... passing fluently... looking very dangerous." On any other day he'd have been right. PS... don't forget the clear penalty on Oswaldo. On the replays, it was crystal clear he was taken out with a clumsy tackle. Football!!!!@#$!

If you replayed that game 10 times, we would win the other 9. There were long spells where we were playing brilliantly. But the defensive frailty w/o Boruc (and with a game-starved Yoshida) is certainly alarming. Hard to account for wonder goals, though. City on Saturday will be huge.

Listen, people. We are by far... by FAR... the better team. Anyone can see that. We could easily be a goal or two up. And chances are we come back and win this one. But there's a huge luck/random/break-of-the-ball factor in every game. If we were 2-1 up on almost exact same performance, we'd be purring. So get behind the team, and look forward to an exciting second half! I thought Lallana, Lambert (except for a couple of miskicks), Clyne, Shaw, Lovren, Wanyama, all put in a fine shift. Some of Lallana's tricks breathtaking. If there's any justice, this one goes 3-1.

Dream scenario tonight: Man U/Everton... draw Liverpool/Norwich... draw or Norwich sneak a win Swansea/Newcastle... home win or draw Saints win by 3 or 4 goals. In that scenario we can edge out 4th place by end of eve. Unfortunately you could get good odds against that combo of results. I'd settle for any win and a move to 6th. I'm excited to see what this team can do. Yoshida's great. Glad to see him get another chance. Wd love love love to see Lallana/Lambert/JRod dazzle some creative goals....

I think Lallana might be feeling that groin injury... Expect he'll be withdrawn at around 60 mins. JRod looking really sharp. Would love, love, love to see an Osvaldo goal.

Amazing that a win takes us second. Didn't see that coming at start of w/e....

Was worried by reports of Lallana's groin injury. But here he is in tracksuit being interviewed ahead of the game...

Seeing Spurs 0-5 down at Man City adds a little context. Yowser.

Whatever else happens this season, it's worth savouring this moment. One third of the way through the season, we are playing to go top of the league. Just awesome.

Wow. Liverpool won't win now. We could go top. Please, Jos and Jose. Time for the game of your lives! I think Osvaldo scores in 80th min for historic win!

Agh... no Lovren. But v happy Lallana is playing.

Scary moment, that. Glad Adam seems OK.

Lallana had a fine half in my opinion. Jay Rod, a few nice touches, no bad mistakes, but not seeing much of the ball.

Oooops, Adam!

Nice touches by both of them. Adam doing his usual steal the ball thing... ...and now a goal to make up.