Saints V Arsenal build up & match thread

11th time lucky against big 6.

Would like to see us attack them. Sit back and defend deep and they will likely win.

Perhaps try Gabbi and Long up top.

COYS

Gonna get thrashed surely, well that will be the popular and way off prediction

Go on daft dell days tells how we will get stuffed like you posted about the Liverpool game:rolleyes:

Gonna get thrashed surely, well that will be the popular and way off prediction

Go on daft dell days tells how we will get stuffed like you posted about the Liverpool game:rolleyes:

First post in this thread and you're already trying to pick fights with other posters.

2-1 Saints.

Would like to see us attack them. Sit back and defend deep and they will likely win.

 

Perhaps try Gabbi and Long up top.

I would like to see this. If we plan to sit deep like we did for large parts today, Long is the obvious outlet. If we get a sizeable amount of possession then Gabbi is the one we look to be at the end of it. 4-4-2 anyone?

First post in this thread and you're already trying to pick fights with other posters.

 

2-1 Saints.

Are you 12? Pick fights it's a forum mate stfu

Bit of a nothing game for us really. All we're playing for is 8th and with this being a game in hand, it's not the end of the world if we lose, as will be expected.

Puel needs to get fans (not all, but a lot) on side, so essentially with this being a game where we have nothing to lose, it's the perfect time to put in a performance both defensively and in the final 3rd.

Arsenal have it all to play for and generally finish the season strong.

0-2

Are you 12? Pick fights it's a forum mate stfu

I think it would benefit the entire forum if you did the same.

I think it would benefit the entire forum if you did the same.

Genuine question, do you write Saints foreva on your pencil case ?

Start with Long, he seems to offer more than gabbi at the moment or start them both

Win and go 8th.

Difficult to know which Arsenal will turn up - tails up for a end of season dash for the 4th place line OR crash back down to earth gutless chokers.

I think we're looking at a 1-1.

I think it would benefit the entire forum if you did the same.

This

Huge Game for Arsene Wenger

Hard one to call.. To ensure goals..I will predict 0-0

Gonna get thrashed surely, well that will be the popular and way off prediction

Go on daft dell days tells how we will get stuffed like you posted about the Liverpool game:rolleyes:

You are so tiresome, you ruin every thread you post in.

I think it would benefit the entire forum if you did the same.

I agree, last chance Always.

As much as I find the usual suspects on this site annoying and find all the negativity over the top and unjust. I have to say you are the most tiresome poster on this site.

If you have an opinion of your own, post it.

I think you should promise yourself not to post a reply to anyone or mention another poster in any future comments, just give your opinion.

Oops!

Not posted for a long time but I'm sure you can all guess who I was meaning to reply to...

As much as I find the usual suspects on this site annoying and find all the negativity over the top and unjust. I have to say you are the most tiresome poster on this site.

 

If you have an opinion of your own, post it.

 

I think you should promise yourself not to post a reply to anyone or mention another poster in any future comments, just give your opinion.

He doesn't have an opinion, just criticises those that do..

Oops!

 

Not posted for a long time but I'm sure you can all guess who I was meaning to reply to...

I had assumed you were replying to me!

I can't get to this one so based on that I think we'll win 3-1

Annoyingly their win today has left them with an outside chance of finishing fourth still so we can be sure Wenger will be going for the 3 points.

I guess the question is whether Puel tries to match them at their own game, or uses his tactics from the Man City and Liverpool home games and set up to defend. Could be in for a hiding in that case.

Annoyingly their win today has left them with an outside chance of finishing fourth still so we can be sure Wenger will be going for the 3 points.

 

I guess the question is whether Puel tries to match them at their own game, or uses his tactics from the Man City and Liverpool home games and set up to defend. Could be in for a hiding in that case.

Regrettably....I fear he will be heartened by today's result and go for that again. It's tedious. The most we can hope for like that is a 0-0 blankout. Let's try for 3 points and if we fail we may get 1. Yes, we may get 0, but I would like to see us take it to them. 4-4-2 Gabbi and Long up front.

I agree, last chance Always.

Bit harsh. Ok gets up people's noses but as to ruining thread come on.

Haven't got a clue about this one. Nil nil seems the norm of late.

Hope we really go for it as fck all to lose and we want some entertainment and let Puel win over some doubters. Give Long and Gabbi a start. Bring on Tadic at 60 mins

Regrettably....I fear he will be heartened by today's result and go for that again. It's tedious. The most we can hope for like that is a 0-0 blankout. Let's try for 3 points and if we fail we may get 1. Yes, we may get 0, but I would like to see us take it to them. 4-4-2 Gabbi and Long up front.

Didn't read this before my post but agree totally. Arsenal can melt at St Mary's but sit off at our peril.

Its really frustrating realizing that we have so little trust and confidence in ourselves these days that we dont trust ourselves to really go at any half decent teams atleast at home and get some goals and maybe even points. I read some article by some former dipper or scummer on us, he said in seasons past everyone knew they were in for a fight when they had a match against soton, home or away teams were atleast expecting us to give them a game whenever they played us. Think the pochetino and koeman days when we were never really expected to just sit deep every single time against decent opposition, i mean we're not tony pulis' wba or any team of fat sam's. We go toe to toe with the best in the league, thats just what we do(did). I guess puel didnt get the memo. IMO hes massively underwhelmed the fans, players and the staff even, with how he's managed the team over the season. Gone in the summer is my guess. Any hoo rant over. No high expectations for this game, they get camped in our half for 90 mins, we dont dare venture anywhere near theirs, they have 25 shots to our 3. Forster has a decent game but luck runs out and we concede an own goal or someone drops a clanger. We lose 0-1.

Its really frustrating realizing that we have so little trust and confidence in ourselves these days that we dont trust ourselves to really go at any half decent teams atleast at home and get some goals and maybe even points. I read some article by some former dipper or scummer on us, he said in seasons past everyone knew they were in for a fight when they had a match against soton, home or away teams were atleast expecting us to give them a game whenever they played us. Think the pochetino and koeman days when we were never really expected to just sit deep every single time against decent opposition, i mean we're not tony pulis' wba or any team of fat sam's. We go toe to toe with the best in the league, thats just what we do(did). I guess puel didnt get the memo. IMO hes massively underwhelmed the fans, players and the staff even, with how he's managed the team over the season. Gone in the summer is my guess. Any hoo rant over. No high expectations for this game, they get camped in our half for 90 mins, we dont dare venture anywhere near theirs, they have 25 shots to our 3. Forster has a decent game but luck runs out and we concede an own goal or someone drops a clanger. We lose 0-1.

Koeman was always about defending Good organisation at the back and two holding in front was his staple he was more than happy to sit deep and soak it up.

Arsenal are a bit toothless with Sanchez out wide. Welbeck has scored his goal for the season and Xhaka had a lucky punt. Fancy us to take something from the game. We have Puel though, so going for another 0-0.

Annoyingly their win today has left them with an outside chance of finishing fourth still so we can be sure Wenger will be going for the 3 points.

 

I guess the question is whether Puel tries to match them at their own game, or uses his tactics from the Man City and Liverpool home games and set up to defend. Could be in for a hiding in that case.

Setting up to defend got us a real hiding from Liverpool, didn't it? May not have been attractive, but it worked.

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IMO it's all about balance, ok to defend as long as you make incisive counter attacks (which we did not do at Liverpool but are capable of) and worry the opposition !

I'd bring Long in for Boufal as he gives us an outlet and hopefully Barry can benefit from knock downs etc...

Start with Long, he seems to offer more than gabbi at the moment or start them both

As much as I find the usual suspects on this site annoying and find all the negativity over the top and unjust. I have to say you are the most tiresome poster on this site.

 

If you have an opinion of your own, post it.

 

I think you should promise yourself not to post a reply to anyone or mention another poster in any future comments, just give your opinion.

He doesn't have an opinion, just criticises those that do..

Does my post quoted above not count then

Does my post quoted above not count then

The fact that you've said Long currently offers more than Gabbi would suggest not. Gabbi is struggling because he's given no help, Long looks better because he comes on and runs the channels when the defenders are tired.

Long needs 10 chances to put 1 away, we won't get that with Arsenal. Just swapping them 2 around is not the answer to our offensive issues.

I'd stick with Gabbiadini just now, he needs more support up top and simply pumping 50 yard long balls to him will make him less effective.

5 games without a goal now, possibly 3 games without a shot(?) need to find that formula that was v.effective when he first joined.

The fact that you've said Long currently offers more than Gabbi would suggest not. Gabbi is struggling because he's given no help, Long looks better because he comes on and runs the channels when the defenders are tired.

 

Long needs 10 chances to put 1 away, we won't get that with Arsenal. Just swapping them 2 around is not the answer to our offensive issues.

Long should have started yesterday if the whole game plan was to hit pool on the break at speed. At home though I want Gabbi.

The fact that you've said Long currently offers more than Gabbi would suggest not. Gabbi is struggling because he's given no help, Long looks better because he comes on and runs the channels when the defenders are tired.

 

Long needs 10 chances to put 1 away, we won't get that with Arsenal. Just swapping them 2 around is not the answer to our offensive issues.

You accuse me of not having an opinion and then dismiss it when i do... strange or agenda against me

If we are going to play in the same way as sunday then long is more suited but at home we should be more aggressive so i would like to see both long and Gabbi

I'm totally fine with going to the big teams away from home and playing defensively. Preferably I'd like to see a threat on the counter as well rather than an all-out defensive show as yesterday, but I don't think it was a deliberate strategy, more a by-product of a strict cautious approach meaning players didn't take any chances whatsoever.

Be ceding possession to Arsenal, we will inevitably tire, and if we don't offer a threat - even if just on the counter attack - they will eventually add more and more players to the attack and probably end up overloading us, or winning a penalty, as so often happens in these games (City could easily have got one for Forster on Sane).

I would play Redmond & JWP as the wide players, to help cover their wing backs defensively, and play Boufal (or maybe Tadic) centrally to take advantage of the space in front of their centre backs, hopefully drawing one of them out and then finding space in behind.

Because Arsenal don't have a particularly big or powerful midfield, I wonder if Clasie or Hojbjerg could be a viable alternative for Davis as DM. Clasie because he wouldn't be at as big a disadvantage as normal physically, or Hojbjerg because it might be an area we could actually gain an advantage over them. If there's one thing that can be said about Arsenal, is that they don't like it up 'em!

Got spare ticket in kingsland block 29 row g for sale as wife can't go for £35.

Personally I understand why we played like we did at Liverpool and at any top six side who dominate possession and score plenty of goals at home. I endorse the way we played at Sunderland, Watford and WBA all good wins. My problem with Puel is the way we play at home. We have scored only 17 goals in 16 games and watching the mostly own half painfully slow possession game with one striker and three forwards who rarely score it is unsurprising. The way we play allows the opposition to do to us what we did to Liverpool yesterday.

This is not the way a team that is expecting to finish in the top third of the division should play at home. Possession in our half for possession's sake is the wrong way to play. We need to up the ante at home and cut out the possession amongst the back six and as soon as we gain possession move the ball forward quickly to the forwards whilst there is still space behind and between the defenders. We need more than one striker in the team at home together with only one holding midfielder. The tempo needs to be intense and give the home support what it craves.

At the moment Puel's tactics are sucking the life out of the team and the supporters, he needs to be much more on the front foot at home. It's not as if we are winning much at home as it is. Change is needed now.

Long should have started yesterday if the whole game plan was to hit pool on the break at speed. At home though I want Gabbi.

If we are going to play in the same way as sunday then long is more suited

Rubbish. Whilst long is probably better at running the channels, worth mentioning that Gabbi is no slouch and has a yard of pace himself, he would not be able to hold up the long hopeful balls we've provided to Gabbi for the past couple of weeks.

If we're going for 1 up front it needs to be Gabbi or Austin. Long needs to play with someone else and other than apply pressure to the back 4 (pretty hard to do alone) he would offer very little else, if we play the way we did yesterday.

Long plays on the shoulder of the last defender, pretty pointless if you're going to lump 40 yard balls to him as it'll be easy to defend.

I agree with playing them both. With Arsenals CB pairing, I think they could both cause havoc, given the right service.

3-4-3 would suit us down to the ground IMO, with the front 3 given the freedom to roam. With attacking full backs it would drag AOC and Sanchez into positions they don't want to be as we'd over run out wide if they don't track back. Time to be brave, Claude a home game with nothing to lose...

------------------Forster--------------------

-------Caceres--Stephens--Yoshida--------

Cedric------------------------------Bertrand

--------------Romeu--Davis----------------

Gabbi--------------------------------Boufal

------------------Long-----------------------

A hard match to predict. Welbeck murdered Stephens in the cup match so that's a bit of a concern but it will be interesting to see if Stephens takes that lesson on board.

You never know which Arsenal team will turn up. Sometimes they are lightweight, lethargic and lack leadership; sometimes they are fluent, creative and very dangerous.

We are similar!

I think Puel will get us to have a go and take the game to them. We're safe, we can't qualify for Europe, we just got a decent away draw but we failed to score in our last home game and people got the hump. It's not like he set us up defensively against Hull, rather the players on the pitch let him down somewhat. I can't see him asking us to play like yesterday again because he knows the crowd won't like it in a home match and he hasn't really got anything to lose.

I would bring Redmond in for Tadic and go back to more of a 4-2-3-1 with JWP wide right, rather than yesterday's 4-3-2-1. Boufal behind Gabbi, Redmond on the left and give all three more licence to roam and have a go at Arsenal. .

Claude says he will revert back to the rotation policy for the last couple of games, starting with the Arsenal game

you watch, our two most expensive signing sat on the bench, Boufal and Gabby

assuming we will 'rotate' here is my team..

Forster

Cedric

Caraces

Stephens

Bertrand

Rom

Hoj

JwP

Boufal

Redmond

Gabby

reckon Austin will make the bench and Pied will get 15 mins or so

also reckon Arsenal will win quite comfortably and we will celebrate having 2 shots on target as some sort of progress

This is exactly the sort of game Arsenal slip up in. After they beat Man City in the cup it was 'Wenger in', everyone was great again. Then they put in that showing against Spurs and it was 'wenger out' again.

Now they've beaten a seriously depleted utd team, let's see how they turn up on Wednesday. Pretty confident about this all being said, we can go for it and take them I reckon. They really aren't all that this year.

I would give Long a go behind Gabbi in the middle to give him some scraps to feed off. JWP one side to cover Cedric, Redmond on the other covering Ryan........ Maybe give Sam a run out in front of Ryan and bring Redmond on later in the game.

Boufal and Tadic only really defend when they need to.

Glad to see Fraser's been working on his dodgy-penalty saving yesterday, suspect it might come in handy with Arsenal desperate for a win but with little attacking threat at the moment (fluke and standard Welbeck header against a weakened Man United notwithstanding). 0-1 injury time penalty to the Arse by any chance?

Forgot to add that we have Mr Moss on the whistle for this one.

Forgot to add that we have Mr Moss on the whistle for this one.

Was in charge for the 4-0 last season too.

Forgot to add that we have Mr Moss on the whistle for this one.

One of the most entertaining refs IMO.

There are still loads of tickets available for this game, very unusual for a game against a "big" club to be on completely open general sale, normally they would at least require a purchase history. Quite a few Hampshire based Arsenal fans in the home end for this one i expect as the away tickets sold out to season ticket holders with plenty of loyalty points.

Their fans only paid £16 in the away end thanks to VirginMedia subsidy and Arsenal pay £4 per ticket for all of the away games for their fans, Saints fans in the same stand are paying £42!

Hard game to call, hopefully will be an entertaining end of season match , 3-2 home win my prediction. We were very unlucky to lose at the Emirates back in September, then dominated there in the league cup win, the FA cup result at St Marys was awful with a 3rd choice Saints XI as good as throwing the tie.