Villa 3-4 Saints

[Saint Keef]

I think if, two weeks ago, someone had offered us a 2-0 comfortable win against top of the table Everton and 3-4 away, against a "high flying Villa , albeit with a dodgy last few minutes, all resulting in us being third in the table, most of us on here may well have bitten their hand off. Well done Ralph. Well done lads. Fingers firmly crossed on the injuries. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

To summarise, brilliant first 60 minutes, then Villa enacted their Managers instructions to nobble some key players and dive as much as possible in the box. But the end result was that we only let in 3 and still won going 3rd. My MOTM was McCarthy who frankly stopped Villa coming away with an embarrassing 5-4 win. JWP ran a very close 2nd...one of the best games I’ve seen from him.

Armstrong needed to give KWP more cover and I just hope Salisu is better than Stephens, whose poor positional play was shown to be key to our past defensive frailties.

[S-Clarke]

4 minutes ago, Saint Keef said:

I think if, two weeks ago, someone had offered us a 2-0 comfortable win against top of the table Everton and 3-4 away, against a "high flying Villa , albeit with a dodgy last few minutes, all resulting in us being third in the table, most of us on here may well have bitten their hand off. Well done Ralph. Well done lads. Fingers firmly crossed on the injuries. 

If the caveat of that was a 'bad injury' to Ings, then I don't think as many would have bitten any hands off!

[Antrimsaint]

1 hour ago, Wes Tender said:

What with England winning the 6 Nations Cup, and the Skates losing at home, it hasn't been a bad weekend for sports overall.

If you are an England fan. I was gutted. Ireland had a the chances to win two games. Gutted but hey Saints in third hasn’t been seen for a while. I’ll take it. Happy Samhain everyone 

[tajjuk]

The teams position and play currently is amazing, there is real potential for a surprise season I think, but if the Ings injury is long then I think that goes away, he's a big part of why we are so efficient with our chances. 

[Cabrone]

Superb victory that was dented by a couple of odd late goals (when the game was already won). However I'll take 3 points at a revitalised Villa all day long thanks.

Ralph's really got them purring now, this could be a vintage season....

[stknowle]

17 minutes ago, tajjuk said:

The teams position and play currently is amazing, there is real potential for a surprise season I think, but if the Ings injury is long then I think that goes away, he's a big part of why we are so efficient with our chances. 

Yes AKA without Ings we are fucked. He is the one truely top class player we have. He plays in a crucial position and we have nobody even remotely at his level to replace him. If he is out for the season (please god no) watch us plummet from our agreeably lofty position like a molten pebble through already melted butter.

Edited 1 November, 2020 by stknowle

[washsaint]

2 minutes ago, stknowle said:

Yes AKA without Ings we are fucked. He is the one truely top class player we have. He plays in a crucial position and we have nobody even remotely at his level to replace him. If he is out for the season (please god no) watch us plummet from our agreeably lofty position like a molten pebble through already melted butter.

What a load of old cobblers you hysterical tart!  We have some very good players now and a decent strength in depth: our bench actually looked pretty strong today.  Of course we would miss Ings but we are not a one player team - look at how the goals have been distributed this season so far.

[S-Clarke]

Just now, washsaint said:

What a load of old cobblers you hysterical tart!  We have some very good players now and a decent strength in depth: our bench actually looked pretty strong today.  Of course we would miss Ings but we are not a one player team - look at how the goals have been distributed this season so far.

It's a tiny bit hysterical but also a little bit of realism. Ings is crucial to us and how we play, how we counter press, how we pull the channels etc.

Take him out of the site we are all of a sudden less clinical and less dangerous in the final third. 

If it wasn't for Ings, we'd currently be sat in 16th/17th on 3 points. If it wasn't for Ings last year, we'd have been relegated.

He is absolutely critical to us which is why I fear every time he gets tackled.

[trousers]

3 minutes ago, washsaint said:

What a load of old cobblers you hysterical tart!  We have some very good players now and a decent strength in depth: our bench actually looked pretty strong today.  Of course we would miss Ings but we are not a one player team - look at how the goals have been distributed this season so far.

The trouble is, Ings adds so much more to our team dynamic than the goals

[stknowle]

1 minute ago, washsaint said:

What a load of old cobblers you hysterical tart!  We have some very good players now and a decent strength in depth: our bench actually looked pretty strong today.  Of course we would miss Ings but we are not a one player team - look at how the goals have been distributed this season so far.

Ok pal, nobody suggested we didn't have some very good players and decent strength in depth, but if you think we won't be just a teensy bit weaker as a result of not having Danny Ings available to play and score goals for us and our league position won't suffer as a result you are deluded. Then again Long is well known for banging them in regularly so maybe I am just a hysterical tart!

[Verbal]

1 minute ago, stknowle said:

Ok pal, nobody suggested we didn't have some very good players and decent strength in depth, but if you think we won't be just a teensy bit weaker as a result of not having Danny Ings available to play and score goals for us and our league position won't suffer as a result you are deluded. Then again Long is well known for banging them in regularly so maybe I am just a hysterical tart!

That's not what you said though.  You said: 'Without Ings we are fucked.'  

[stknowle]

5 minutes ago, Verbal said:

That's not what you said though.  You said: 'Without Ings we are fucked.'  

Well knock me down with a figure of speech.

Edited 1 November, 2020 by stknowle

[Mr X]

1 hour ago, stknowle said:

Not really that worrying in the context of the injuries. If we hadn't sustained those we would not have conceded 3 imho. The injuries are in and of themselves the most worrying aspect of today.

Yes this is a good point the injuries in defence did force us to play Stephens 

[cloggy saint]

We score 4 goals away from home, move up to third and all I'm seeing here is whinging, unbelievable.

[SaintBitterne]

Some great saves today, but confused at McCarthy's lack of effort to save the third didn't even look blocked.

Not sure it was a penalty either. 

 

Fustrating to concede 3, but goals are coming from all over the pitch. Bring on Newcastle

[Lighthouse]

1 minute ago, cloggy saint said:

We score 4 goals away from home, move up to third and all I'm seeing here is whinging, unbelievable.

Have you read and understood the context of it?

[Wes Tender]

Here we are after 7 matches, ahead of Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea so far, and possibly Spurs and City if they don't win their matches

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, cloggy saint said:

We score 4 goals away from home, move up to third and all I'm seeing here is whinging, unbelievable.

Why are you surprised? The best comment has to be how Ralph got it wrong today incredible post. 🤣

[tajjuk]

To be fair I think Ward-Prowse has shown hes a top class player over the last year. He's been vital to that midfield, filled in as an emergency at both full backs now comfortably, taken the captaincy and led by example and has increased his goal output. 

He'd also be a very big loss.

But even for the top teams their best players can't be replaced, look at Laporte or Aguero for City, VVD for Liverpool etc.

If you look at our goals to expect goals not only this season but basically over the last year, we have more goals than our expected goals and that is largely down to Ings basically being the most efficient striker in the league. 

He is our Harry Kane and we have less good players to fill the void. 

[cloggy saint]

3 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Why are you surprised? The best comment has to be how Ralph got it wrong today incredible post. 🤣

I'm not really surprised, there can't be many more negative football forums than this one. Had we won 0-4 there would be complaints that it wasn't 5.

[SaintBitterne]

1 hour ago, eelpie said:

Yes. And let's also celebrate that despite only having four goals on target (according to the official stats) 100% were goals! When's the last time that happened?   😀😀😀😀

Actually quite an interesting point this, I've found we do waste a lot of chances, so it was good to see us being clinical

[OttawaSaint]

11 minutes ago, SaintBitterne said:

Some great saves today, but confused at McCarthy's lack of effort to save the third didn't even look blocked.

Not sure it was a penalty either. 

 

Fustrating to concede 3, but goals are coming from all over the pitch. Bring on Newcastle

it took a slight deflection and wrong footed Alex.

[mitch01]

1 hour ago, stknowle said:

Agreed. Please stop scaremongering will you Mitch01. We have enough to worry about what with going into lockdown and all that. 

Apologies - very insensitive of me! It was my first thought though, falling backwards with his foot beneath him. Praying for a good news week from Ings’ scan and Biden’s election to counteract the gloom.

[SaveloyMush]

13 minutes ago, mitch01 said:

Apologies - very insensitive of me! It was my first thought though, falling backwards with his foot beneath him. Praying for a good news week from Ings’ scan and Biden’s election to counteract the gloom.

Oh, do fuck off.

This is a football forum.

[stknowle]

45 minutes ago, tajjuk said:

To be fair I think Ward-Prowse has shown hes a top class player over the last year. He's been vital to that midfield, filled in as an emergency at both full backs now comfortably, taken the captaincy and led by example and has increased his goal output. 

He'd also be a very big loss.

But even for the top teams their best players can't be replaced, look at Laporte or Aguero for City, VVD for Liverpool etc.

If you look at our goals to expect goals not only this season but basically over the last year, we have more goals than our expected goals and that is largely down to Ings basically being the most efficient striker in the league. 

He is our Harry Kane and we have less good players to fill the void. 

Agree with this, almost edited my post claiming Ings is our only truly top class player to reference JWP but couldn't be arsed. Mantain DI our most important player by miles though.

[hypochondriac]

17 minutes ago, SaveloyMush said:

Oh, do fuck off.

This is a football forum.

Well said! 

[miserableoldgit]

3 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

 

What about them?

A slightly less than successful attempt at humour suggesting that we might me in the verge of doing a "Leicester". Do you do humour? 

[Micky]

1 hour ago, SaintBitterne said:

Some great saves today, but confused at McCarthy's lack of effort to save the third didn't even look blocked.

Not sure it was a penalty either. 

 

Fustrating to concede 3, but goals are coming from all over the pitch. Bring on Newcastle

If you watch it I think you'll find it takes a deflection off of Vestegards thigh.  It's going to Alex's left but the deflection takes it the other way.  I think. 

[Sheaf Saint]

Plenty of criticism directed at the ref(s) today. But for me, the biggest gripe I had was when Bednarek was down holding his head. The Saints players were screaming at him to stop play but he let Villa carry on until eventually awarding them a FK for a foul on Grealish. THEN he signals to the bench for the physios to attend to Bednarek and it was quite obviously a head injury (replay showed he fell on it very awkwardly) and he was being treated for ages. Then he eventually gets walked off the pitch, but the ref decides it's perfectly OK to let Villa take the FK, rather than acknowledging he should have stopped play and calling a drop-ball. Pretty scandalous really.

And I'm baffled why Cash didn't get sent off for his handball. It was deliberate to prevent a clear goal-scoring opportunity, and according to the current rules should have resulted in a red card.

[Convict Colony]

3 hours ago, jimmer42 said:

On the up side, 3 points for an excellent away win and I still got 15 points for Grealish and  7 and 5 for the excellent Vestergaard and Adams respectively in my fantasy league team. We are 3rd in the league after losing the 1st two games.....let's get some perspective people

 

Bro, I have Ings, Ziyech, grealish, Kane, Calvert Lewin, Salah, Chilwell and still 4 dudes to play.

Edit I have Lamptey as well who just scored for brighton

Am getting crazy with my points this season

Edited 1 November, 2020 by Convict Colony

[Jeremy]

Just saw really brief highlights on Youtube and RH interview post match. 4 absolutely superb goals. Vestergard (sp?) goal to get the team's general confidence going was really impressive. I know he's taken a lot of criticism on here but even I, who knows nothing about football, can see he's a really dedicated team player.

RH says Ings hopefully not too bad.

 

Edited 1 November, 2020 by Jeremy

[Hairlesshero]

Ralph is a fantastic manager, but today's lopsided  bench of 4 attackers and only 1 defender was a selection error, which limited our options for responding to the injuries. Hopefully a lesson learned for future matches.

[Lighthouse]

How was Cash not sent off for that handball?

[bpsaint]

3 hours ago, cloggy saint said:

We score 4 goals away from home, move up to third and all I'm seeing here is whinging, unbelievable.

Think it’s important to put some perspective behind the negative mood, yes we’ve had a very good day from the point of view that we scored 4 and picked up the 3 points, however some frustration is warranted that we conceded 3 poor goals, and we could see Diallo should have been bought on to shore up the midfield much sooner.

Add to the fact we’ve suffered injuries to 3 key players surely some fans can be forgiven for not being as happy clappy as yourself.

[Dorchester Saint]

4 hours ago, mitch01 said:

Apologies - very insensitive of me! It was my first thought though, falling backwards with his foot beneath him. Praying for a good news week from Ings’ scan and Biden’s election to counteract the gloom.

I would have to seriously question the sanity of someone who wants Biden to be POTUS ...

[waylander]

14 minutes ago, Dorchester Saint said:

I would have to seriously question the sanity of someone who wants Biden to be POTUS ...

When the alternative is Trump I would not

[Victor]

1 hour ago, LeG said:

Having reflected on this game, ive come to the conclusion that its a wonderful first half display, followed by a freak second. 

Villa created the injury time in which they scored, by kicking us. Unfortunately we got the injuries we've been hoping to avoid...and they came almost all at once.

RH has a very effective system in which he implements his tactics beautifully, though there is a concerning air of arrogance about his in game changes if we are winning. I know it wasnt helped by the injuries, but the min ings nets the 4th you take him off and sure up the midfield. 

I will see what the damage is regarding ings.

Was hilarious to see Smith on MOTD bleating that the ref didn't add the correct amount of added/injury time otherwise they would have won.

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, Victor said:

Was hilarious to see Smith on MOTD bleating that the ref didn't add the correct amount of added/injury time otherwise they would have won.

Yeah wtf was that all about?

12 mins they should have had, apparently. Good sign of your teams quality and managerial ability if you need 12 extra minutes on every game to ensure you get something. Not quite sure I'd use that angle if I was a manager. He should have been fair that they were well beaten and the end scoreline flattered them, as it did.

Edited 1 November, 2020 by S-Clarke

[Hawkswood]

2 minutes ago, Victor said:

Was hilarious to see Smith on MOTD bleating that the ref didn't add the correct amount of added/injury time otherwise they would have won.

Yeah I just saw that.

What a knobhead

[Teddeer]

Just watched MOTD. The two free kicks from JWP were stunning. If he can regularly get the ball up and down like that then there is little defending sides can do if we win free kicks just outside the box. He obviously practices hard and it seems he has developed a very reliable technique - let's hope that is the case. The move leading up to Ing's goal and his strike was pure brilliance. Three magnificent goals and Jan's header wasn't too shabby from a JWP assist.

[Lighthouse]

3 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Yeah wtf was that all about?

12 mins they should have had, apparently. Good sign of your teams quality and managerial ability if you need 12 extra minutes on every game to ensure you get something. Not quite sure I'd use that angle if I was a manager. He should have been fair that they were well beaten and the end scoreline flattered them, as it did.

Yeah, I don't think that's going to go down too well with their fans. That was a 1-4 game and we switched off 2 mins into injury time; sloppiness in Boro 2005 portions from us that flattered them. Saying you should have had 12 minutes injury time because you would have scored 4 goals is weird and desperate, even in a joking - but not really joking - gritted teeth kind of way.

[SaintTex]

7 hours ago, musesaint said:

TBH, good player though he is, 80% of Grealish’s reputation is built on his ability to cheat fouls and penalties...plus his hairband of course. 

and his child sized shinpads

[SaintTex]

for some perspective.. see below

number of points/place after 7 matches

2020-2021  13 points | 3rd place

2019-2020  7 points } 14th place

2018-2019  5 points | 16th place

2017-2018  8 points | 12th place

2016-2017  9 points | 8th place

2015-2016  9 points | 9th place

2014-2015  13 points | 3rd place

how many matches in to the season before we got to at least 13 points?

2020-2021  7 matches

2019-2020  15 matches

2018-2019  18 matches

2017-2018  10 matches 

2016-2017  9 matches

2015-2016  9 matches

2014-2015  6 matches

 

Best start since the Koeman era.

[SaintBobby]

56 minutes ago, SaintTex said:

for some perspective.. see below

number of points/place after 7 matches

2020-2021  13 points | 3rd place

2019-2020  7 points } 14th place

2018-2019  5 points | 16th place

2017-2018  8 points | 12th place

2016-2017  9 points | 8th place

2015-2016  9 points | 9th place

2014-2015  13 points | 3rd place

how many matches in to the season before we got to at least 13 points?

2020-2021  7 matches

2019-2020  15 matches

2018-2019  18 matches

2017-2018  10 matches 

2016-2017  9 matches

2015-2016  9 matches

2014-2015  6 matches

 

Best start since the Koeman era.

When was the last time we were 12 points clear of relegation zone after 7 matches? Ever?

[skintsaint]

Sleeping on the result happy with the win. Injuries a key now to RB and DI. Think i was pissed off last night after the game as had a number of 'I 4-1 love playing Villa' messages lined up to Villa supporting mates ...😁

[niceandfriendly]

5 hours ago, Dorchester Saint said:

I would have to seriously question the sanity of someone who wants Biden to be POTUS ...

Psssst... you're supposed to keep the batshit crazy stuff to yourself

[Pilchards]

Still buzzing on our attacking football yesterday as it had me jumping and screaming for a change.

Little worrying that Jack Stephens has conceded 7 goals in his last 90 minutes of football for us. 

Also I would love to know what the no fans league table looks like as I reckon we would be a few points clear now.

[goodymatt]

 

[Saint Luke]

15 hours ago, jemanson said:

I drove myself home after snapping an ACL playing 5-a-side ... Didn't have much choice as the rest of my team had already gone home.

I drove myself home after breaking my leg - although didn’t know it at the time