Saints are not Arsenal or Man Utd - thats why most of us cant see Norwich keeping a clean sheet on Wed night !
With respect, every single fan in the world would be more inclined to worry about keeping a clean sheet against Arsenal or Man United than Southampton. That's not to say you won't hammer us 4-0, I'm just pointing out that nobody in their right mind would of thought we would keep clean sheets against Arsenal and Man Utd. So, as Norwich fans, its only natural for us to think that if we can keep clean sheets against them two, then we have a good chance of keeping one against you.
Yes, but you've leaked far more goals away from home (13 compared to 6 at home) and we've scored 12 at home. The stats suggest there will be goals!
So Lallana, Ramirez and Lambert are more dangerous attack than Van Persie, Hernandez and Young... Dont make me laugh! I dont expect to keep a clean sheet but like carra says, i would feel more inclined to think we could compared to the likes of Man u or Arsenal! Re Saint richie.. Also 4-0 is a scoreline that suggests you are seriously under estimating us! If you were facing say one of the top sides who were unbeaten in 7 and had kept clean sheets in 3 of there last 4 games, would you suggest you could win 4-0 against them, probably not as its not Norwich... same old same old!
This logic is really stupid, but I'll follow it if you want. You scored one against United, well, we scored two, which means our attack is twice as good as yours! If we can score twice against Vidic and Ferdinand then imagine what we can do to Turner and Bassong! Duhhhh!
Well if you're going to go by those stats, its going to be 5-0 to you boys. My stat would be we have only lost once to a team below us in the league in I don't know how many months.
that's a fair comment on the away goals; note of those 13, 5 were against fulham on opening day and 4 at chelsea in early Oct - like yourselves, our team has been playing much better after a difficult start. if we keep it tight in the first 30 mins and not concede we've more of a chance of getting something - most likely a saints win or draw, but any of the 3 outcomes is possible.
To be fair, I think dman was mostly joking. And like-for-like there is a gulf in attacking quality between Arsenal and United and ourselves. But if someone with no prior knowledge of the teams watched United and Arsenal's attacking performances against you, and then watched our attacking performance against QPR and Newcastle, I think nine times out of ten they would pick us as the superior attacking side. That being said, a large part of the reason that United and Arsenal played that way was because you stopped them from playing, and we will be hard pressed to produce a performance like we did against two sides that were pathetic on the day. Personally I think this game is too close to call, thus, I'll go for 1-1 just to plonk myself on the fence!
With our current set up and more influential players, weve conceded only 6 in our last 7 league games and that includes 4 away at stamford bridge. Since Having Bassong at the back and Tettey in front of the back 4 we have been such hard team to break down. If were on it Wednesday then you will too, but i fear we will have an off day!
You shouldn't worry about giving us Penalties, referees don't do that, they know what will happen if Lambo is playing, it's unfair on the opposition.
That raises an interesting point. If Lambert is indeed carrying a little bit of cramp or a knock from the Newcastle game and Nigel decides to give him a rest, if we get a penalty, who takes it?! I reckon Ramirez would be after it. It would be darkly amusing if after all our penalty shouts recently, that we finally get one with Rickie not on the pitch, would be a few nervous supporters I think haha. Probably few nervous players too.
Its going to be a tight game, if we play to our new found strengths. The Newcastle result is quite freaky actually, you look at our season last year we played the toon on an off day with injuries at the back and we ran them raggid winning 4-2 but that result summed up our style of play. This year our results our alot more tighter as CH has tightened up the ship alot! Last season we were the highest scorers outside the top 5 or 6 but conceded the most outside the bottom 3, does seem familiar to you lot? It's strange that we've kept hold of all our players going forward but barely get a goal, but we've learnt that a sound defence and harder team to break down is the better route to go down for a side like us!
this game will be a lot tougher than the newcastle game thats for sure. Houghton, who I really rate, has turned them into a solid outfit. i can see if being very close. tough one to call though this though
Ha ha - yes my post was pretty tongue in cheek ! I like Norwich and we have had some outstanding games between us over the years, so hoping for another on Wed night. I too think it will be a bigger test than any of our last three games, when we have played very well. Obviously as its a football match any score is possible, but i am reckon a score draw or Saints win if we get the rub of the green and the ref is better than that sod Atkinson was yesterday ! Two teams in a bit of form for sure.
