I find all of this talk about taking a point on Tuesday a tad lilley-livered; there are three home points there for the taking. You seem to be over-estimating S'ton and under-estimating City; get a grip, ffs. I think the current bottom four will struggle to average better than 0.9 points/game and 35/36 points will do for safety, which will arrive for us no later than 22nd March.
Southampton are probably the only team this season to have dominated us for nearly a full 90 minutes. We need to not allow Lallana run at us at pace as much as he did in the away match. I am sure Brucie will have a plan this time. Looking at the rest of this weeks fixtures if we can win this one it will put us in a really strong position. UTC
These guys hate Sunderland more than you LTL Actually I think the 4-1 at home was our peak and we haven't quite returned to it since, although we have kept the points ticking over more or less. There were some tough games and injuries mixed in though. And we've only lost twice to teams below us in the table, which is quite impressive. But not many options on the bench for us at the moment so I can't help predicting a draw. Anyway good luck.
Saints are best team we've played away but Chelsea best team at KC this season. We didn't have the strikers then. I think we could win this one 2-1. J-Lo to score.
I fully agree with the general consensus that Southampton are an excellent team and that they did give City a torrid time. However, my feelings on the day were that the second half was pretty even - Sagbo scored a very good goal and there was a glimmer of hope for us until Southampton scored the fourth. The first 45 minutes were certainly one way traffic though. I think Tuesday's game is definitely one to look forwards to.
They were great early on, but their bubble burst after they stuffed us. We're a better team now too. And we won't play that badly again. And we're at home. City, 3-1.
As good as saints were that day, in the first half at least and take nothing away from them, we killed ourselves off. Some un characteristic shocking defending contributed to their goals, it's not often we have a horror show at the back, but that was one of those days and saints made us pay for it, all credit due. We're also a stronger side now and practically fully fit, I believe we were missing half the squad that day. If we take the game to them we can easily get something, I don't know about the current status of their players but they had half their defence missing. If we take a cautious approach and let them get the upper hand, were toast.
22 Steve Harper 27 Ahmed Elmohamady (Koren 46) 15 Paul McShane 6 Curtis Davies 3 Maynor Figueroa 2 Liam Rosenior 7 David Meyler (Graham 73) 14 Jake Livermore 8 Tom Huddlestone 17 George Boyd (Quinn 80) 20 Yannick Sagbo
He came off at half time at Sunderland, so it's not a surprise. I'd prefer us to be starting with Rosenior at right back, with Elmo in front of him, as Rosie is defensively better. Instead, we'll now be starting with Elmo at right back and someone else on the wing, I just hope it's not Koren.
