West Brom at home...

Och laddie, are ye trying to tell me I'm English after all these years?

 

Also, given that before Saturday, Southampton had only played Liverpool & Man Utd out of the "big teams" it's not surprising they'd picked up a decent haul of points.

Seem to recall two seasons ago when we were in a similar position, the press trotted out the usual " But they haven't played anyone yet" - funny how it doesn't work for teams south of the Watford Gap

Be interesting to see where they are after Chelsea & Man City in their next three games

 

Always support the manager unless they set out to be negative (Allardyce). Especially when they have silver foxy charms.

 

I think you have to have a certain amount of quality to consistently play a pressing game. Dortmund are probably the most obvious exponents, but then you're talking about players like Bender and Gundogan, not Lallana and Schneiderlin. I wonder if their style will play into our hands a bit - could go either way, we could either get all panicky or we could use it to sucker punch them. Also Willo > Lambert.

 

A bit surprised Fat Sham is still in a job.

 

I won't pretend I like the bloke but my loathing of his style is nothing to do with that. I just don't believe in reducing football to some stats driven science. Football is too complicated for that and has way too many variables. Not only that but it should be fun and enjoyable. I have also never subscribed to the theory "results are all that matters, get them anyway you can". I accept sometimes there is pleasure to be taken from a gritty display, digging in to do whatever is necessary to get a result. I just don't believe that should become the norm wherever possible. I'd rather watch a side playing good football in League 2 than a side playing route 1 in the PL.

As I say he has tried to modify his style at West Ham a bit and I haven't seen enough of them to be too critical of him.