Oh, and according to Transfermarkt - £28.8 m. I’m not going to crow about it though, they’ve hardly done a ‘Carrillo’. And to think they offered £25 for Prowsie. For that alone I want them relegated.
Highlights from the club site with Adam and Dave: https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2021-11-06/highlights-southampton-aston-villa-premier-league-2021
Watching the highlights, I think El Ghazi is more fortunate than I originally thought for his foul on Tino. I didn't think it was quite as much of a drag back as that originally. He certainly would have been booked had he not already been.
Romeu's tracking back to stop runs into the box was great last night. Romeu, Armstrong and Ward-Prowse all struggled early in the season. All had injuries and I guess you have to be super fit to play our pressing game.
Our best 45 minutes of the season. JWP's best 45 minutes of the season (welcome back James). And a rare occasion where Che got my MOTM. Slightly annoying that we didn't make more of KWP and Ely killing them down the left flank (until Smith changed it at HT). And slightly annoying that we once again don't put two good 45 minutes together. But we won the game, kept a clean sheet, and moved a further step away from both the relegation zone and being the team who loves to drop points from winning positions. Life is good.
I think this weekend will be crucial to the way the relegation battle pans out now that we have 14 points. It was a solid performance by Saints last night. The first half should have finished by a greater margin but we were lucky not to concede in the end. It has not done Villa any favours but, more crucially, I do not think that Norwich will even get 14 point this season. Newcastle have tp beat Brighton to remain 7 points apart from Saints. That will not happen and #i think there will be a 10point gap by the close of thr weekend. That just leaves one relegation place to sort out.
I would want to be a minimum of 13 points ahead of Newcastle - but ideally more like 16 to 19 - before I start to feel like we have a nice enough head start on them. No-one knows exactly what they will do in January.
“We were very good defensively,” Hasenhüttl said. “One-nil wins are the nicest ones.” Not for me Ralph, 3-0 by halftime then bringing on the promising youngsters early in the second to score a couple more would suit me.
I think we will finish healthy mid-table. The side has not properly clicked yet. The performances will improve.
Agreed and why is it we have to have such poor refereeing decisions against us when we play Villa? I’m still scarred by our previous game against them (but last night eased that somewhat). Well done Saints. We March on!