Saintmike5

You know you've made it as a team when Lawro starts predicting 2-0 home wins for you.

I agree, he has everything you want from a full back - pace, strength, balance, bravery in the tackle, intelligence to know when to bomb forward and when to track back, excellent crossing, outstanding stamina, need I go on? Will be incredibly hard to replace if he goes, but we usually manage to muddle through somehow.

There's an outside chance we may overhaul them by the middle of February if we keep our run going and they fail to win at Chelsea and Stoke, but a sub-1% chance of staying there once they get Bony up and going IMO.

Remarkable to think that had Everton beaten us just before Xmas (likely many of us predicted) they would have been within 2 points of us, yet less than a month later there is a 20 (yes 20!) point gap between the teams.

Try this http://www.thesportspredictor.com/#/predictor/pro?_f_mp=true

Outstanding effort to win 3 away games in 6 days. Don't care whether the performances could or couldn't have been better at certain times, coming out of this week with a 100% record is a magnificent achievement and I couldn't be more proud of the team.

Probably around 10000 Ipswich fans in the stadium who may not be coming back for a while.... We've been as good as we needed to be i.e not very, but can't really scoff at two away wins in 3 days. PITA about Victor though. Onwards and upwards.

Gonna be so annoyed if this goes into ET. Get the sneaking feeling both sides would be happy with a Saints 2nd, Ipswich so that they don't have to chase a late equaliser they almost certainly won't want.

Was just about to post the same, exactly this! The FA Cup can wait till next year! CL qualification aside, 4th place would mean finishing ahead of 2 of Liverpool, Man U and Arsenal which over a 38 game season would be an unbelievable achievement.

Indeed they did, Ollie Holt himself predicted we'd finish 20th on the day before the season started (I kept the article for the lols!) along with three other Mirror colleagues who all predicted we'd get relegated.

Magnificent stuff. Currently watching Barca, hoping they hold on to their 2-0 lead so they don't get twitchy and go after our manager - it's a weird world we're living in! Fonte my MoM, I like the way he's getting some much deserved love here tonight. Though I'd put JWP not far behind for the job he did on Carrick today which was IMO key to stopping ManU from creating all that much. His defensive qualities are not always the first thing that get talked about, but he put a real shift in today and I hope he keeps it up. MS and VW both marvellous as usual also.

Crikey, Arsenal are coming for a 0-0! Going to be hard to break down that defence. For once it looks like Arsene is setting up a side to counter the opposition.

As Doc Emmett Brown once said, "Rhodes? Where we're going, we don't need Rhodes!"

Levy didn't look happy either, probably thinking about whether he can get away with poaching Southampton's security staff. Is there anything about that club that works like it should?

Qpr 2 City 2 now. Have to say, one of the most entertaining games I've seen for a long while!

It was more the reluctant, solemn way he said it that got my goat, made us sound more like a cross between Isis and the Ebola virus.

Looking at the current Fantasy Premier League points for the season so far tells a story (sorry if formatting gets screwed up): Best Goalies: Forster 45 Fabianski 42 Best Defenders: Baines 58 Clyne 57 Bertrand 55 Fonte 50 Ivanovic 47 Best Midfield: Sanchez 70 Fabregas 61 Tadic 54 Hazard 54 Best Forward: Pelle 61 Aguero 58 Costa 56

Hull look very good in midfield especially, maybe need a change of tactics at HT to try and get in and test Jakupovic a bit more. Doesn't seem to be happening for Long today, would get Mane on soon if he's fit enough. Otherwise not bad from us, keep it up Saints!

Yeah isn't it just? "We don't buy success, we breed it!". Although we haven't half bought well also!

My Koeman-love grows by the day, so refreshing to see such a positive approach to this competition. Among the many positives to come out the game were Long getting off the mark, no players getting injured despite Adam's best efforts, and the fact we don't have to play Stoke again for a few months (unfortunate FA Cup draws permitting...). Pelle MoM of course, who else?

Good job Pelle has been ripping him a new one then.

Get in ShLong!!

Nothing "vaguely" about it IMO, an utter carbon copy of so many of our games last season. Poch sides simply cannot handle the opposition scoring; all of their PL wins so far have been with clean sheets, the same as all but 2 of our wins last season (and the two we did concede in we were already 3 up by the time the opposition scored). Getting the team playing attractive football is all well and good but they don't seem to have the mental ability to deal with setbacks. Possibly getting found out now he's more in the spotlight.

Pelle with a 3 yard screamer to put Italy in front!

Very enjoyable and encouraging article to read, which if it is all accurate paints a different picture of the summer to the one I think most of us (me included) thought at the time. It has also served to increase my dislike of Tottenham Hotspur football club to stratospheric levels. What a thoroughly dislikeable, shabby, dysfunctional and delusional bunch they are, Poch might just have found his spiritual home after all.