DuncanRG

Their defence is there to be probed. Get our act together and we can make more than enough chances to win this game.

Can't play a pass here

We have much, much better depth this year than last. In the last two seasons a couple of injuries was enough to send us into a nasty run of form, whereas now I think we can stay competitive even if the first choice XI (naturally) has a better cutting edge. There's always room to improve, though.

Changing system is a lot more challenging than changing personnel, especially when you have less time to train between games and your absentees are defensive.

Can't deny Arsenal deserved it - if we'd forced that many good saves from a keeper we'd be gutted not to win. Just a shame that we were so close to time and would have had a better chance of holding on had Toby stayed on.

I'm making do with the wins, personally

City were very good indeed while we weren't at our best, but we hung in there and should have taken a boost from the red card. Instead we capitulated, which was very frustrating. Think there was a point in that for us. Thought Alderweireld was absolutely sensational at centre half and didn't do a bad job in midfield either. Long's got a good claim to a start against Arsenal given how poor Tadic and Mane have been recently.

Tadic's corners are absolutely diabolical and one led to a goal today.

Turns out Cork hasn't got what it takes to be a box to box midfielder

What you're saying is we may have decided we can buy a better player than Jack Cork. That entirely possible. The fact that the black box is one of the tools we use to make those decisions doesn't make much of a difference

The reason being it's a role that doesn't involve any public interaction. That doesn't mean it's not important!

I'm glad it'll never happen because a Wanyama-on-Wanyama collision would probably rip the space-time continuum

YouGov isn't a government agency, it's an independent (and highly respected) polling company This is fascinating, though it should be noted that it isn't supposed to be the average Saints fan. it's what separates Saints fans from the control group which is, I assume, the average football fan. For example, it shows an Arsenal fan is more likely to be an 18-24-year-old woman but that doesn't mean there are more female than male Arsenal fans.

Yeah, we're rightly being hailed for that but win the Sunderland game by a more reasonable score (say 4-0) and we would be behind a handful of teams. One of them would be the Cherries, mind, who also got an 8-0 win...

The other reason it's not being highlighted is that it's entirely down to one freak result.

I'll take 35.01-36

Would you let Rolf Harris back on kid's telly?

Just weeks after every paper in the land reported that we lost 1-0 to Tottenham! Another negative story!

It would be, but a midfield of Matic and Fabregas does the same job better and frees another player to attack. We know that Schneiderlin doesn't have Fabregas's goalscoring ability or eye for the killer pass and Matic practically does the job of two men single-handedly. Morgan's in with the best of the rest but not touching that top bracket in which Matic is probably the Premier League's only representative. In our league he would only significantly improve the top teams with midfield deficiencies - Spurs, Arsenal and Manchester United. This is the thing - I'm sure he could 'fit in' to almost any side but the best of the best lift their teams and are able to set the tempo and style of games from first whistle to last. Players like Alonso, Pirlo, Kroos and Sergio Busquets do that and Schneiderlin doesn't, even with a second defensive midfield partner.

That would be vastly inferior to Matic and Fabregas. Morgan's a great player but he really isn't the world beater some of our fans make him out to be. He wouldn't get close to the Real Madrid or Barcelona teams.

Absolutely spot on. Most journalists, like most people, want us to do well. You know what ongoing football story has probably sold more papers than any other over the past year? The collapse of Manchester United. The status quo is boring. It is exciting when it gets challenged. Jeff's conspiracy is not even worth reading.

His translator never spoke to the players did he?

In the short term, absolutely. He hasn't become a worse player because he doesn't suit Liverpool's style of play. Austin and Ulloa have been in good form for their first handful of Premier League games but Lambert has proven his class over two seasons. He needed replacing for us but any bottom half club and some top half clubs would be lucky to have him this year. After that is obviously another question.

I don't like this apprehension of poor teams 'scrapping for their lives'. They're down there because they're not very good. Sure, they'll be busting a gut when it comes to the end of the season and they literally can't stay up without the points but it's nothing to be concerned with at this stage.

What on earth are you talking about?