Gazzaniga had a decent game at Cardiff, prompting the travelling fans to sing (to the tune of Puncheon's song) "He saves when he wants, he saves when he wants... Gazzaniga, he saves when he wants".
Head-to-head Southampton won the reverse fixture 3-0 on Boxing Day. Jay Rodriguez scored the opening two goals and Rickie Lambert the third - all within the opening 27 minutes. Cardiff are without a win at Southampton in their 11 league visits (D3, L8). Their last victory was a 5-3 Division Two win in 1962. Saints have never lost to Cardiff in the month of April (W5, D1). There has never been a goalless draw in 46 meetings between the clubs in all competitions (39 in the league). Southampton It's four wins and four defeats for Southampton in their last eight league games. Saints have lost four times at home this season, but just once against a team in the bottom half of the table (2-3 v Aston Villa). Southampton are one win away from equalling their highest tally of victories in a single Premier League season (14 in 1997-98 and 2000-01). Mauricio Pochettino's men have won 11 of 12 matches this season when they have kept a clean sheet. Southampton have failed to score in just five of their 33 league matches; only Liverpool (two) and Manchester City (four) have a better record. Rickie Lambert is one of only nine players in the top divisions of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France to reach double figures in both goals and assists this season (11 goals, 10 assists). Cardiff Cardiff picked up just two points against the five teams they are still to play from the reverse fixtures earlier this season. The Bluebirds have picked up only five points from the last 27 available to them. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side have conceded 20 goals in their last seven matches. They have only been ahead twice at half-time in Premier League matches this season. City have the worst record against clubs in the top half of the league table (W1, D3, L12). Their sole win came against Manchester City back in August.
You still have hope but must admit its hard to see you staying up. Effectively 7 points from safety with your GD. Probably need at least 3 wins from your last 5.
Rickie is one of only 9 players in the top league's in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France to reach double figures with both goals and assists. Yeah, he's been really off his game this season.
Yep agree with your cynicism. If there has been a complaint of Rickie it's that he went through a small patch during this season where he was slightly off his game BY HIS HIGH STANDARDS. But he's been back playing superbly for many weeks now. He's a superb player.
Just looked up Rickie's statistics for Saints. I know that most of his goals were in League One and the Championship, but he has scored 115 goals in 230 competitive games for us. 1 in 2. And that doesn't even take into account the amount of assists he has.
Mentioned before that I've watched the first 45 minutes of Saints/ManC match this morning, and the Barclays PL commentator was picking out Rickie for all the great holding, linking and creative play he was doing. Many pundits will still say Rickie reminds them of some totem pole CF, but they can only be ones who don't actually watch, because even the same commentator said, for those of you who don't regularly get to see Rickie Lambert [play] you won't know that he's so much more than a CF, his creativity is superb at times. Roy watched him again. He's off to Brazil [fingers crossed no injuries].
When watching Saints, I usually find myself saying I wish Rickie could be putting balls into the box, as well as being on the end of them, because he is one of the best passers in the side. His vision is superb. It makes me angry when the lazy Carroll comparison is made. Yes ok, I admit Carroll is good in the air, as is Rickie, but there is no way that Carroll could do half the things that Rickie can on a football pitch.
With JRod out, I expect Roy has got his fingers crossed about Rickie. England aren't exactly buried under strikers.
