mrfahaji

Would it be a good move to bring Hoedt on...?

Stop cutting inside Nathan, you d1ck! And then, give to Bertrand, but no, passes back... ARGH!

That’s the sort of save we’ve been used to Forster not making, well done Fraser! Redmond nearly gives away a penalty with a Boufal-esque lunge.

Austin, under pressure, urgently hooks the ball forward and finds JWP, who matches Austin’s urgency and technique with a hook backwards. Heaven forbid you might attack from there, James!

Typical! I also missed the Everton game...

Long’s omission particularly strange given they are playing Mertesacker!

Great we’re winning, I missed the start... in the last 5 minutes Redmond has already annoyed me a number of times... only reason I can think he’s playing on the left is defensive cover for Bellerin. Otherwise it beggars belief.

Nope, a West Ham win and Chelsea desperate to bounce back next week...

I expect if you compared where Lacazette takes his shots from, they are a lot closer to goal, or in a much more promising situation than where (or when) Redmond takes his from. Another factor is of course, that Lacazette is better than any of our strikers, but notwithstanding that, I think the most likely conclusion is that Arsenal fashion better chances than we do.

Fine if you rate Davis, but very surprising that you'd be so quick to write off Romeu. Romeu hasn't been as good this season, but he's still been decent and was excellent vs Bournemouth. I think in some ways it's because Lemina has taken the attention and some of the workload off him. In the same way that a goalkeeper playing for a poor team gets lots of chances to make saves and shine, last season every opposition attack had to get past Oriol whereas this year we have someone else in there too. If everyone is fit, to me the choice of a central midfield three is Lemina, Romeu + Davis/Hojbjerg/Tadic/Boufal. Each have their merits.

That is also important, but in some ways they go hand in hand. If you have defenders on the turn, or frightened to leave space in behind, it creates space and time for others. As a defender you're always happier when all the play is in front of you. Even though it's possible to have one without the other (whichever way round), it's a lot easier to play with pace if you have players with pace.

Yep, not disputing that! Some people often criticise Austin for lack of pace though, which is why I mentioned this interview - it's either not true, or not important! Although I would say that while I don't think it's important for any particular player to have pace (save perhaps full backs), I do think it's important to have pace somewhere in the team.

Yeah, it seemed pretty clear to me that's what Bertrand was hinting at. Was also interesting that "most intelligent" in terms of academics he picked Forster (who'd have thought it, eh?) and not JWP. Austin the best when it comes to Trivia, ha.

Not sure where the most relevant place to post this is, but just watched Bertrand's "team mate" video on the monthly newsletter. For the question "Quickest?" he says something about Austin "being on top at the moment" - guess there's some sort of speed trap competition they have going on. He does also make a joke about it being downhill for Austin to be winning, but perhaps he's not as slow as people like to make out? Later in the interview quite a telling comment. "Oriol is currently the teacher's pet, but Prowsie is definitely, DEFINITELY the headmaster's pet, if you know what I mean..." Edit: sorry just seen this has already been discussed on the previous page!

If Cedric has anything worse than "a knock" we can probably assume he's out for the season...

'They thought the game was out of control, and then I explained it to them, and they go, "oh yeah, yeah, you are the best"' Was pretty much how I read it.

I'm hoping to go to the game. Will you be there?

I'll take that, walking distance (admittedly, quite a long walk) from my house, hopefully I get can a ticket. Went to see Fulham-Hull earlier in the season, Fulham looked decent at times but nothing particularly special, think they missed Cairney, not sure if he's back for them yet. They have the neutral end next to the away fans for league games, imagine it's no different for the cup - last time Saints fans bought up most of the neutral tickets and it felt like we had the whole end for the 0-3 match - what a day that was!

Didn't it hit his shoulder?

Because it's "minimum of 3 minutes", and there was at least a few seconds of time wasted in injury time by Bertrand and Forster (and a sub, as Bexy says). I'm more concerned that we allowed Ake a free header in the final seconds of the game.

Pretty funny for somebody who hates life

Yeah, was expecting a straight drive then...

That Austin chance was one of those where I'm surprised it didn't go in, but also feels a bit harsh to be annoyed at him for missing it. Don't know if that makes sense, just felt like it happened so quickly, it was almost bad luck that despite getting to the ball the connection wasn't quite right! Gabbiadini on, we're going for it. Hope we don't live to regret that...

I know you can always use hindsight to say whether he should or shouldn't have passed it, but that have been a couple of times now when Boufal has tried to beat his man (unsuccessfully) when there has been a clear pass to someone in a decent position (Tadic earlier, Lemina just a minute ago). It's good that Boufal runs at people but he needs to play the percentages a little bit more.