It was nice that MOTD noted what a great defensive effort it was, especially without the usual threat of our excellent fullbacks. Not sure if that was mentioned.
...and Morgan took one for the team. He knew he would be off, but he still did it. That to me epitomises our team spirit.
Someone got at you, FLT? The Xmas venison disagree with you??! As it happens I agree with you, but I'm writing this in the calm of a cold morning. I've been buzzing about the result since the final whistle. We were lucky with the penalty shout in the sense that it could have gone against us and we could have had little complaint. As for the whining from Chelsea, what sort of fans are on this board? If I can't come away from a bad result without a decent whinge then it's been a crap day! So yes, we got lucky. Isn't it about time? But we also saw our team stand up and be counted, which for those of us who watched the pathetic display at Sheff Utd was more than a little welcome. As for your final point, you make a good point. The ease with which phrases that include the likes of "disaster", "tragedy" and "crisis" in reference to a game of football troubles me. There are real tragedies every day, and as for football we've had Ibrox, Heysel, Bradford and Hillsborough in my lifetime. As you say, we need to keep a sense of perspective and simply enjoy the moment. WE ARE BLOODY FOURTH FFS!!
I agree. Mane was fouled in the build up to their goal and like Fabregas he got nothing because the ref was pissed of with the ease and frequency that he went down.
Hi Lamho - couldn't sleep; was a tad grouchy, you're right I was also buzzing when I got home yesterday about the result and then started reading some of the negativity on here. Think I need to read on here less.
Trouble is now Fergie has gone Mourinho is the big "I am" and they give him way too much air time and much like Fergie he is not slow in bigging up anything that goes against him. Fergie was the master that Mourinho has taken the mantle from.
In truth though every game usually throws up some disagreement. What happened with young matt is what I would classify as "I've seen them given" I have looked at the incident time and time again and in all honesty nothing is 100% conclusive. Matt slips there is no disagreement there it would seem. Was Fabergas looking for a penalty .....almost certainly after all that is his job. My understanding about refereeing an incident like that would be....did the player try to trip Fab up, did he deliberately put his leg in, or leave it in the way, the answer to that would be a no in my opinion? On the other hand did Fab actually accidentally just trip over matt? Did he have a chance to avoid him, probably not? The final question would be was a goal scoring opportunity lost because of the accidental collision?......Debateable Was he guaranteed to score but for the collision..... not necessarily? For me the final analysis would be the same as the referee's. Just remember though I have had the benefit of watching the incident time and time again. Not a nano second to make the decision like the ref had. So it is a question of judgement at the end of the day certainly not as cast iron as some make out. So my earlier statement "I have seen them given" reply does apply.
I haven't read all the responses but the last few I did read seems to imply that there has been some negative stuff put up here. If so, I can't believe it. Whenever did a draw feel like a win as much as this one? Without two of our stand out players we pulled off a great result and limited an amazingly talented bunch of players to one shot. We obviously decided to defend our goal and give Chelsea the rest pf the pitch to do their thing. Our organisation was superb. Take Hazard for example, an amazing talent if ever there was one, but despite how well he played we invariably managed to turn him round. There was always another player for him to beat and despite the appearance of him dominating the game, I actually thought he held the ball too long. A couple of quicker crosses and we might have been undone. Ok, he scored the goal on the one occasion that we switched off but I felt that we hadn't reorganised after the 'foul' on Mane. They might have had a penalty, true, although there was no intent, but really, how many penalties have we been denied recently? I would like to say that Mourihno is an idiot, but he's not. He doesn't believe what he's saying, he's just trying to get the referee's confused like Fergie managed so successfully. Anyway, great performance from Saints. Not the sort we are used to seeing but still a superb effort.
100% agree Lff. The Hazard goal was the only thing that Saints did wrong in the whole game, and yes, I think they switched off because they thought we were going to get a free kick. No excuses, but it happens. The rest of the match the players stuck to the plan, and I don't think it's stretching things too far to say we could have won that game with a bit more luck. We were lucky the pen wasn't given, but it was a 50:50 decision which went our way. Against Everton we had a 100% penalty turned down, and we are only not still moaning about that because we scored from the incorrectly-given corner, so the luck balanced out there. Anyway, I felt that was definitely a moral victory for us, we held the best side in the UK, possibly one of the best in Europe, to a very creditable draw and we go into the Arsenal game with our confidence fully restored.
I must admit I haven't seen it in detail, I will take your word for it, it was just my initial impression that the Whu player lost his footing, but it was the afters that caused the problem it seems, how about the disallowed goal? Offside or not? Football would be dead boring if it got too clinical and technology was used to sort things out, we would have nothing to argue about!
Just discussed on Morning View on Sky. General agreement that the Targett incident was a penalty, but they then analyzed the other incidents earlier in the season mentioned by Mourinho. All were shown again and said to be cases of simulation. Obviously no campaign against Chelsea, but pundits suggest he should speak to his own players and point out that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable in England. I think there is a campaign against simulation and Chelsea lost out yesterday because they are the worst culprit.
I'm still buzzing about the result. Was a penalty all day for me, but I still don't care, we are due some luck and the Chelsea players continuous whining and diving means they made a rod for their own backs. There was a saints fan on the 606 phone in last night that hit the nail on the head. He spotted fabregas mouthing off to the referee for the whole walk into the tunnel at half time - why would the ref then believe his protests when they are real? If we can now get a result of any kind against arsenal... Dreamland!
Chris Kamara said that all this talk about Mourinho is taking attention away from how well Southampton played (mentioned that we kept Chelsea to one shot on target and could even have won). Go Kammy!
Truth is, that sort of incident (Fabregas 'dive' and yellow card) happens in every game, the length of the country, usually more than once, but they usually tend to just get passed off as one of those things. But when its Chelsea, the media love to push Mourinho's buttons. There were so many positives to talk about (Hazard's goal, Fabregas' genius, our incredible wall of defence), but instead the interviewer goes straight for the one (fairly lame) moment of controversy.
And if controversy really is the flavour of the day, then how about the moment Mane is absolutely launched off the ball by Ivanovic on the halfway line, 30 seconds before their goal?
I didn't enjoy hearing the commentator in that game say, "there was contact and he was entitled to go down." Players are getting into the habit of hitting the deck when they don't need to so it is not surprising that often they'll pre-empt contact and go down. What would it take for players to stay on their feet more often?
Just read a thread on Saintsweb which reminded me of an issue I wanted to talk about on here.. Referee's not letting Pellè attack the ball. The ref blew for a foul every time he went up for a header yesterday - it was a joke. Just because he beat Cahill and terry doesn't make it a foul ref! It always used to be an issue with rickie as our target man as well, but the inconsistency of these decisions is astonishing.
Put simply; pelle gets punished for being fouled, or for just standing his ground far too often for my liking.
For me Chelsea just about got every decision from the ref yesterday apart from one, stop moaning Jose and get on with it. Trying being a little club like us and see how many decisions we get from your friends the refs
