Great half. I'd say it was pretty even. I think we edged play but they edged the chances. I suspect some may criticise Mané as an attacking force, but I just want to point out how immense he has been defending from the front!
Romeu is huge so far, his best performance in Saints shirt. Forster saved us twice, but other than that, we're keeping them at bay. But I don't see us scoring with this game plan.
Could go either way this. They look pretty disjointed and not enjoying our physicality. Romeu has been outstanding in the centre of the park. Fraser a wall at the back when required.
So did I. I had to take my eyes off it as my brother kept texting me every 30 secs. I turned the Notifications off.
I can. A well timed ball into the channels to release Shane or Sadio and a half decent finish (which is the tricky part!) and there we are.
Good but even though it's even I still only see Arsenal snatching one. They have created some very good chances or at least consistently got in good goal scoring positions but just being stopped by very good defending. We, however, can get up to the box but then Mane falls over or gives it away. Most of our shots have been hopeful long range efforts. We're definitely still in this though.
Let's do a Manure. Hold them until the last couple of minutes then slip in a killer goal. Job's a good'un. Only need 1.
Ok, but there was none of those in the first half, suggesting that we're not managing to do that successfully.
Only caught the last 15 mins thought we looked good from what I have seen. All to play for second half. Pressure will be building on Arsenal, with other results going against them.
Stream has been a bit temperamental, but now working well at half time. Arsenal look much more dangerous with Sanchez, but they've had to play very good football to eek out chances. That touch from Ozil was the out standing moment, but Smart save from Forster and again from the offside chance from Ozil. Manè really should have scored, but he seems clueless infront of goal at the moment. Good halves from Romeu and Prowse
Streams keep stopping for me Romeu the top man. Mane really low on confidence and affecting his pass choice as well, but working hard.
I'm really not sure what people don't understand about formations under RK. He's been repeatedly telling us these last few weeks how the team is intelligent enough to play different formations so he can vary it depending on the opposition. So to revert to a flat 4 at the back is no real surprise - especially as that's how we played when we beat them 4-0 a few weeks back (around the time, as I recall, people were criticising the use of three central defenders). More importantly, we need to remind ourselves that the formation only dictates the starting position of players and the pressing game means they are constantly adapting in order to keep the pressure up. It's a nightmare to play against. We've come a long way since the famous WGS quote that was along the lines of players being not very bright - 'they only really understand 4-4-2'
5Live bod said that we bossed the midfield but missed the rest of the 1st half summary. By the sounds of things, none of the ex-Saints players are having a particularly good evening for Liverpool...
