Great game great result....would just like to give massive respect to the Villa fans for there clapping on the 19th minute showing there support for Petrov....lets hope he pulls through and plays again.......now can MotD start now please I cant wait to see the goals again!!
I reckon the turning point was Villa taking Ireland off, he was running the show first half, but Richardson brought stability on the right and Clyne found the right way through their defence, that's one nought knocked off of Ramirez fee.
Well a few will watch match of the day tonight and will then realise we are not so bad as they thought..that's for sure. There will in fact be a few people out there that will have their opinion changed. We did not deserve to go in 1.0 down at half time Imo. Some of the passing in the mid field area was awesome......yes some passes did go a stray and at times we put our selves under pressure because of it. This time though in the second half in particular we look very sound. The new centre half is a very cool customer as a result I think Fonte had a better game. Although I am told he was possibly at fault for their goal....couldn't see that myself as it was down tother end from me!.........
First game of the season I have attended and a good one to choose at that! The fans were nervous and you could feel the tension in the first half; must admit surprised Davis was dropped in goal. Southampton had a lot of possession in the first half although I thought it was a fairly even, Saints just didn't have their shooting boots on in the first half. Yoshida read the game well and Fonte looked more assured alongside him and put in some good blocks. Villa looked a strong team with a lot of height and once they had scored from sloppy defending people were giving up hope. Credit must go to Adkins as he kept faith, and the second half was an improved performance. I thought Puncheon was pivotal and Lambert held the ball up well, an amazing second half with some nice intricate passing, I feel that this is how we will play all season and sometimes it will work well and other times we will be trounced. On one final note, I thought the Villa support was impressive.
I watched the game live today on Canadian tv. I thought Yoshida was very solid at the back, did what he needed to do. The defence in general where pretty solid today, although I thought Fox struggled badly, his outlet passes where very poor. Credit to Nigel for making the change at HT. Thought Gaston was outstanding, once he, Ricky and Lallana get a real understanding of eachother, Saints going forward will scare the crap out of a lot of teams. Keep things solid at the back, work hard in midfield, and we should be ok this season.
Fantastic result to get off the mark and start evening out the goal difference. Gaston Ramirez really did look like a fabulous player - looking like £12m well spent. Still a bit unnsure at times, but this win will give the players confidence to keep improving on that. Very happy today!
People say Fox's distribution was poor, however he rarely had anyone in front of him to pass to as Lallana kept drifting so he had to pass inside or loft it up the pitch. Fox has never been a strong passer of the ball which is why I was surprised we signed him in the first place.
I would agree with that. I was surprised he went off at half time as I thought he was useful as a playmaker for them, but they seemed to decide to go more direct in the second half. Also Lambert said his defence [Villa] dropped too deep and made his midfield tire, however I thought they struggled when they pushed up as we played in behind them. Very strange.
Spot on SaintDon. He was "cheating" a bit and stayed in that hole when we pushed forward and as they broke he was always in space. Great day though!
I usually stick up for Fox and although you were right about no-one in front of him, he was very poor today.
