Strange isn't it. We are third and doing well, but our days of expecting to batter anyone are over. One nil to the Southampton boys, One nil....
http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/arti...gallery-pre-west-ham-united-home-2260467.aspx Training gallery...shots of Filip, but none of Morgan.
I can't see anything wrong with that Tom cos (even though I've been wrong before) I still fancy us to finish well above them. Saints 4 v WHU 1 - I reckon we'll batter 'em!!
They will be decent defensively, we are struggling to score, if we keep Sakho and Valencia quiet I don't see them troubling us though. I hope we do something more than pass it between Davis fonte and gardos on halfway the whole game. Got draw written all over this one.
I feel better about this one than I did about the Swansea game (not hindsight, honest). I'm usually the pessimist but I think we'll win OK. I'd like an early goal but whatever, a draw isn't overly helpful to WH so I don't think it will be all defence from them. This will help us as we tend to struggle against the 10 man defence.
Of course WHU will go for a win, but I think they would regard a draw as a good result....a draw away at side difficult to beat. They will look for wins against lower sides. They are in no danger of relegation and realistically they aren't going to make top 4.
I may have to be one of those hatednpeople who leave at 85min, if I miss the last train East I'm in trouble. Depends on how finely the game is balanced I suppose.
I think Valencia and Sakho can be quite a handful, therefore it is great to have Wanyama back. I think we need to push their full-backs back. Scoring will be tough with Song playing just as important role for them as Wanyama for us. Arguably these teams are quite well matched.
Personally, I'm quite looking forward to battering the odd team over the coming years. I got a taste of it against Sunderland. There's probably a bit of truth in what you say though, for all teams, in that with the increase in PL money [today Scudamore announced another deal worth £5.136B for 2016/17 to 2019/20], every PL team is more competitive. Yes, the most successful teams get the most money, but we're into a law of diminishing returns here. The PL can attract the best from Europe and beyond, and those extra special players on top of the best that cost many millions more aren't that much better. It means that on any given day, a smaller team can beat a bigger team. And if that smaller team is brilliantly coached and run then they may be able to do that quite often. The result is though that games are closer and more competitive. Never thought I'd say that the PL was actually competitive, but the points distribution this season shows that it is.
Song is a brilliant player on his day. Against Utd though he was really careless and gave the ball away on numerous occasions. WP needs to 'bite his ankles' and keep him hurried.
Got a feeling this is going to be a tough one, so would take a draw. Mind you, I'd take a 3-1 loss if it meant we stuffed Liverpool next week. That's the one I really want to win...
I'm rushing straight to the game from work but my train doesn't get in until 7pm. Anyone know if the shuttle buses still run from the station to the stadium?