alexf

Longstaff missing will be felt more in the Brighton and Arsenal games which I believed if we are full strength we could win. Was interesting to see that video someone posted of saints fans talking and one of them saying they "hated Eddie Howe and his punchable face" Always thought if I was a supporter of another club I would like Eddie, as he doesn't lose his shit on the touchline like the rest of them do, he's measured and fair in his press and doesn't purposely wind up opposition to get a rise. But maybe I have rose tinted glasses?

Game against Brighton I always assumed would be one of our toughest. However atleast they play alot of the teams around us aswell. Ideally they beat everyone else and then we beat them ?

I'm sure they check every goal for possible offside to be fair. It's annoying because it doesn't matter if Burn was inside or off as I didn't impact the play. However if that goes against us and they ignored it, we would be calling it a corrupt decision. Just disappointing for Schar as it was such a nice goal.

Interesting that first half of season the right wing was our most fruitful. Yesterday 3 out of 4 goals were from the left. Clearly we were targeting Godfrey aswell.

Marinner was a farce last night. You could see our player getting pissed off. Every decision he was giving us nothing and then was blowing for soft things for them. For example Wilson getting ragdolled every time and then when he tried to give it back would be immediately whistled. Was one of those games where we won in spite of the referee again, like Brentford.

Hopefully Longstaff didn't pick up an injury. That looked a heavy hit on his foot and he struggled to continue after.

Unless we get injuries, we should look to win all our remaining games now. Bar possibly Man City, there isn't a more inform and dynamic looking team in the league at the moment. If I was a fan of any other team I would be shitting it seeing Newcastle on the fixtures list. Our fitness levels look off the charts and when we need to, we just look capable of blowing teams away in 10-15 min spells. All players in form and options from the bench. We even have ASM to come back as an option again soon.

Was such a weird dip in form he had mid season. I don't think we had ever really seen it from him before, probably because his seasons are always disjointed due to injuries etc. But he's been fantastic again. He has unique qualities that are different to Isak. It feels great to have genuine options for rotation and strength in depth finally.

It's a real shame the cup final happened to fall during our worst dip in form this year with players looking tired and people like Wilson suddenly looking totally out of form, Pope suspension etc. Eddie deserved that trophy for his efforts this year. However if we get top 4 from the position we were in when he took over is nothing short of miraculous. It will also mean we have every chance to win something in coming seasons aswell. The fact we are playing even better stuff than we were pre world cup is outrageous. First time in my life I'm going into games genuinely confident were going to blow teams away. Great turn around after that dip we had.

Can't stand Man utd ofcourse. However as a football fan, I do enjoy seeing what Rashford can do now he's turned his form around this season. Great goal tonight. If he was injured I could have seen utd messing up in remaining fixtures, but think they will be alright.

Every game I still have had that caution in me thinking "ooo could be awkward". And after Arsenal slipped up against these I thought this could be one of those expected wins that turns into a shock loss or draw. However I genuinely cannot see anything but a win here. Everyone is playing fantastic, Southampton just lost at home to Bournemouth. Just smash these fuckers and cruise into the Arsenal game ready to take it too them again.

I love the confidence he has now to just turn and skin people on the outside. Brilliant assist again tonight and almost a wonder goal to go with it.

Until we started raining ridiculous goals. Thought he was the best of the bunch for long spells. Don't remember him putting a foot wrong and dealt with stuff effortlessly.

Agreed, they may have been more vulnerable for the taking if they were still in the mix. But by the time they play us they could be completely out of it and might be relaxed to play a good game. Or....they will be completely broken and go on a horrendous run.

Only playing 3mins 11 seconds aswell seems dodgy in that L'poo game, I mean I didn't watch much of the game but looks like a shit load of subs and even a fake out time wasting sub Liverpool did on a throw in. Yet we had to face 8+ mins against them.

Yeah I think it's clear from the villa game that Sean is an important cog in that midfield 3 and we miss him when he's not playing. Never thought I'd say that until this season. Well done lad.

Excellent performance.

Essentially if they have had to change to a formation they are not familiar with to try and combat us. I think that can be only good for us. But we shall see.

It's almost like we don't adapt our tactics to the opposition. But sometimes maybe we should because we always seem to struggle against pace. Not sure Longstaff will help in this game either, all the villa players seem alot quicker than ours.

Whole back 4 have been really poor. Cannot live with Watkins in the air on his pace. Midfield getting over run and poor decision making up front. Need to revert to that 2nd half formation from last week. Get Wilson in up top. Drop Isak into the hole and Hook Gordon as Murphy looks abit brighter than him today. Need to up the sharpness though, been 2nd best. They do throw themselves to the ground at the slightest hint of contact. Linesman and ref have been proper homers so far.

Feel like arsenal threw it away on that Jesus/Odegaard double sub. They were starting to get a few counter attacks and Odegaard was stil threading some nice through balls and Jesus was battling away. But remember thinking who the hell is this when that Kiwor came on. Going 5 at the back with 10 + injury time to go just invited Liverpool on.

Man Utd's run looks the easiest of the three of us. But there are bound to be upsets/shocks along the way. Who knows how they will perform without Rashford if he's out for a number of games. But I'd say they have about 8 expected to win games from their run in, we have about 5 and spurs have about 5.

Our Achilles heel seems to be defending against pace. Villa have plenty of it, especially with Watkins in form. I think this will be a high scoring game. I'd probably like to see us start with the team we had 2nd half today if ASM and Almiron are still injured.

When he starts getting on the ball and dictating the game we look so much better. Ran the show most of the second half.

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