Premier League Match 12 - Arsenal 2 Southampton 0

I guess you just have to laugh really!

Arsenal away is always a bit of a terrifying fixture for us because we always get humped.  The degree of humping may vary but we always seem to lose.  Even if we manage to keep it close, we will lose in the last minute to something dodgy but usually we’re three or four goals adrift by the time the 90 minutes are up.  Last year of course, we lost 6-1, managing to concede 4 goals in about 10 minutes which usually ends things as a contest.

Whilst we were wallowing in the Championship and League 1, Arsenal were being also rans, probably due to the 6 points a season they were no longer being gifted by ourselves.  Depsite all this, Arsene Wenger is still there and this year there is a bigger danger than usual that this trophyless run will end.  They are top of the league, seem to have a decent defence now and as usual, play mesmerising stuff going forward.  Their two signings this year are Mesut Ozil who is a genius, albeit a bug-eyed one and Matthieu Flamini who gives them that steel in midfield that they’ve lacked since they last won anything.  They of course also have the fruits of our academy in Walcott and Chamberlain who are on the bench and injured today.

The media is full of articles about our academy as is the norm at the moment but no one seems to be picking up that today is 1^st versus 3^rd and if 3^rd were to manage to win then 3^rd could become 1^st at which point many Saints fans would collectively have heart attacks.  Since the internationals there have been no stories about the players at St Mary’s, other than a recycled one about Jose Fonte moving to Turkey which dates from pre-season.

The teams are announced along with a 15 minute kick off delay for local traffic but the extra 15 minutes has not allowed Dejan Lovren to recover from some bug or another so he’s out and Big Jos is in which with all due respect to the Dutchman is not a good start.  The extra 15 minutes has not allowed Gaston to get back from the latest gig on his World Tour of ‘Benches I have Sat On’.  The good news for Gaston is that he’ll be able to add a few Brazilian cities to the list in the summer of 2014 s he watches Uruguay from the bench in the World Cup.  Other absentees include regular benchwarmers Corky, Superkelv and Guly who are all injured to varying degrees and in their place sit Sam Gallagher, Harry Scholes and Gazza.

The Merseyside Derby had finished in a draw so as we kicked off we know that a 2-0 win would put us top.  Was it at all possible or would we leave North London with that usual ‘just humped’ feeling?

The game starts in predictable fashion as Arsenal try and pass it out from the back and we don’t let them with our three England boys closing down Mertesacker and Koscielny and forcing harried clearances.  When they do get into the midfield theough, the movement is of a different class than we’ve seen all year and when Wilshere tricks his way down the right his chip to the back post, sails over King Artur, hits the inside of the post and bounces straight back to the keeper whilst we all go ‘shiiiit’.

More Arsenal trickery on the edge of the box and Shaw dives in to pull off a superb saving tackle on Ozil but he goes down holding his hamstring which is slightly worrying and it’s a major surprise that after treatment, he’s back on.

We are now riding our luck for all it’s worth and on 17 we have another large slice as Ozil gets down our left and fires in a low cross which is behind Ramsey but he produces a kind of back heeled flick which sends the ball skidding along the ground and into the post and away.

I used to love the days when we had Radhi Jaidi and he would win the ball and in the same movement, train right through the centre forward and leave him in a mess on the ground with no air in his lungs.  The new Radhi is of course Big Vic and his Monster Tackle.  Wilshere has the ball and turns the wrong way and BANG, away comes Big Vic with the ball and Wilshere is on the ground complaining to the referee and asking who allowed someone to drive a truck over him.

Shaw is back up and playing but is obviously not right but we look solid still.  Big Jos is having a decent game and it looks like we’ll be hard for Arsenal to break down as Clyne knocks a ball back to King Artur.  Clear it, no, stop fucking about with it, no, shit, fuck, oh fuck, fuck me, fuck off!  Artur has received the ball, looked to knock it off to the left but Shaw obviously didn’t want it due to his injury so he’s turned back to the right and been confronted by Giroud.  Instead of wellying it at this point he’s tried a few turns and it’s horrible and Giroud nicks it and runs it into the net.  I have to say that his celebration is a bit over the top for such a goal but there you go. Fuck, once more.  It’s ridiculous that we have such a good defensive record when the last 3 we’ve let in are the opposition keeper scoring from 100 yards, Big Vic’s mistake against Hull and now this!

We respond well and force a corner which is half cleared and crossed back in by Shaw and cleared out for another corner which again leads to nothing aside from a bloody great cheer for King Artur as the ball eventually ends up back with him.  This time, he control and clips it forward, nice and easy like.

We are forcing arsenal back though and a foul on Lallana gives us a free kick 40 yards out which JWP clips in.  A header half clear and a mis-kick by Arteta and it falls to Adam Lallana whose volley is going in but easy enough for Szczesny to tip over the bar. More corners, more pressure and one looks like it’s heading for Big Jos and his square head but it’s not Tuesday night so he doesn’t score.

An Arsenal attack gives us another opportunity as Morgan breaks it up and it’s pas, pass, pass with Lallana in a tight area before J-Rod lays off to JWP and picks up the return pass.  It’s a difficult one to take down but he improvises a volley which Szczesny turns away to his left to the lurking Sir Rickie who is offside and he screws it across the goal anyhow.

It’s all us as we approach half time until Giroud picks it up on half way and Jos decides that he doesn’t want to chase him back so he fouls him as soon as he can and takes the yellow card.  Half time and 0-0, oh no, we’ve gifted them a fucking goal and we’re 1-0 down.

Predictably, Luke Shaw doesn’t appear for the second half but somewhat less predictably, Steve Davis is his replacement with Nathaniel Clyne going to left back and JWP dropping to right back.  We start off with a wonderful flowing move which is initiated by our new right back who finds Sir Rickie who in turn finds Morgan and his pull back is thumped left footed by Lallana from the edge of the box but it’s straight down Chesney’s throat.  I have not got fed up with looking up how to spell his bloody name every time I mention him.

With Dani Osvaldo on the line and ready to come on I was expecting Sir Rickie to be making way but Adam Lallana was the man to make way for Our Argie-Italian Rock ‘n’  Roll Pirate. Hmmm, not sure about this as we now have two out and out strikers with J-Rod on one wing and Steve Davis on the other and not a lot of creativity.

We give away a throw in as Clyne give Artur and shite back pass which he has to prevent from going for a corner.  From the throw, Arsenal work it back to Ozil who shoots from a narrow angle and King Artur grabs easily.

With 20 to go, Wenger summoned Theo Walcott from the bench in place of Cazorla but I for one was pleased he went to the right to play against Clyne, rather than to the left to play against JWP who was playing his first ever game at right back.

Saints are still in this game though and creating half chances.  Firstly, the Pirate bursts through the middle and bundles his way past Mertesacker before shooting from range and giving Chesney an easy enough save.  Sir Rickie had a shot deflected for a corner following decent set up play by J-Rod and when the corner broke to Big Vic, he smashed it over the bar from the edge of the box.  Then J-Rod burst through in similar fashion but seemed to lose belief he could score as Mertesacker got across to tackle.

Wenger removed Ozil for Monreal as he was obviously a bit concerned about securing the points but he needn’t have worried as he had the secret weapon up his sleeve, Mark Twattenburg.  I don’t like the attention seeking prima donna tosser and he probably felt that the game hadn’t been about him enough so from an Arsenal corner, he gives a penalty against Fonte for a tug on Mertesacker’s shirt when directly behind those two, Giroud had a handful of Hooiveld’s shirt.  Don’t get me wrong, assuming he’s not seen Giroud and Hooiveld then it’s a correct decision by the letter of the law, a law which is applied in about 1 instance every 1000 times it occurs.  I hope someone somewhere can put together a highlight reel of every corner in this match and work out how many penalties should have been given if the tosser was consistent with his refereeing.  Are you telling me that Mertesacker or Koscielny didn’t grab hold of Sir Rickie from any of our corners?

Unlike the last time Twattenburg gave a last minute penalty against us at Norwich, King Artur couldn’t save us as he went the wrong way as Giroud scored again.  Imagine how mental we would have gone if it has been 0-0 when he gave that?  The only good thing about it is that a second goal probably takes the heat off of Artur’s dropped bollock as it was no longer the only goal.

A few minutes of injury time and then it’s all over as Twattenburg blows the final whistle on a 2-0 defeat which is the best result we’ve had at Arsenal for years.  In the main we played well, created a few chances and did incredibly well at restricting Arsenal’s possession which they usually dominate, especially at home.  We’ve lost of course, due to Artur’s dropped bullock and Twattenburg’s desire to give a last minute penalty against us in every Saints fixture he referees.

Despite losing we picked up plaudits from Wenger and acknowledgement that we gave them a very tough game.  It would have been nice to have had a full strength side out as everything went wrong today.  Jos deputised for Dejan pretty well but Shaw getting injured and Clyne going to left back stifled creativity from the flanks and removed JWP from the midfield.  Lallana’s England related substitution also cut down the creativity factor as did Gaston not being available as a replacement.  The England hangover also seemed to apply to Sir Rickie who looked very ponderous today but the positives were J-Rod and Dani Osvaldo who both looked lively if a little low on confidence.  Though we played some decent stuff in Arsenal’s half, I never really felt we’d score unless it was from a set piece or a benevolently awarded penalty for shirt pulling, miraculously given against the big club when they were at home.  Man of the match for me was Big Vic who along with Morgan, worked incredibly hard to give s a foothold against Arsenal’s much decorated midfield.

Where do we start with King Artur and his dropped bollock?  Well, it was truly horrific and needless and clear the fucking thing 70 yards and they’re not going to score are they?  I was still feeling this way about it until I watched Match of the Day 2 which for once, gave some decent insight about how a keeper is expected to pass the ball these days, especially when the team plays the style that Saints do.  This is something the Mauricio alluded to in his post match interview whilst stating his support for the King. I guess the question is “Who do you want in goal next week?” a) Artur Boruc b) a 37 year old who is Championship standard c) a 20 year old who is League 1 standard.   It’s a big error sure but I confidently state that with either of the other two in goal today, we’d have probably lost by more and anyone who thinks we’d have let in less over this season with Superkelv or Gazza in goal is completely deluded.  Having received the ball from Clyne and then looking left and seeing no one to pass to, the King of course should have then smashed it rather than try and be too clever, or passed it out for a throw in or even a bloody corner... in fact, anything other than hitting us with three Cruyff turns.  It was interesting to note that ‘old school’ keeper Peter Schmeichel who was on the MOTD2 panel was of the opinion that you just get the ball the fuck away from your goal and worry about it later.  He didn’t use those exact words but that’s what he meant.

To recover from only our second defeat of the season, we have a nice easy trip to Stamford Bridge up next.  Chelsea have now moved above us in the league which is a shame as I have to take the flak from Chelseawanker in our office.  Hopefully Dejan and Luke will have recovered so we can give it a real go with a full strength side.  There is the Mourinho “not lost at home ever” record to aim at and I’d love to hear his post match excuses.

Bring on the Special One.

England Drag Saints Stars Down to Their Level!

Jay, Adam and Rickie play "Spot the Player Who Shouldn't Be Here"

England friendlies are boring and pretty much a waste of time as a rule.  What you get is a starting XI which will be devoid of Liverpool, Arsenal and Man United players as they will all pull out injured.  In their place will be reserves from the same teams who don’t get a game in the Premier League and therefore can be spared by their respective clubs Irish, French and Scottish managers.  Hence, players like Tom Cleverley have 20 caps and someone like James Milner has approaching 50, despite neither being good enough to get a regular Premier League game for their clubs.  This time is actually a bit different though and we, as Saints fans are interested.

Maybe it’s because Saints are sitting 3^rd in the League and therefore it can’t really be criticized but to his credit, Roy Hodgson has decided to have a look at some Saints players with Sir Rickie, Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez in the squad.  Sir Rickie or course has become a bit of a regular since the start of this season but it’s a first time inclusion for the other two.  I don’t think anyone was surprised at Adam’s inclusion buy Jay’s call up came as a massive surprise to me as for me, he’s not shown anywhere near the level of consistency over a period of time to warrant it... mind you, it’s never stopped call ups for many of the others in the squad.

As the game approached we had a spate of withdrawals with Carrick and Welbeck being the first to go, followed by Gerrard and Sturridge.  Then there was a bit of a heart-in-mouth moment as Sir Rickie pulled out with a kind of unspecified muscle injury... aarrrrgh!  He never gets injured to what the fuck has happened there?  All of this increased the chances of the other two getting a game and as it turned out, they were both named in the starting XI, on either side of Squirrel Head in the England attack.

The national anthems saw the two Saints boys standing next to eachother with Adam looking composed and Jay looking somewhere between nervous and terrified.  There’s been a lot of talk recently about the Saints pressing game and you could see that England were set up to try and do the same.  Rooney was chasing around, Adam and J-Rod were pushing up, as was Milner from midfield.  However, Lampard, Wilshere and the back four were miles back and Chile were good enough to pop it about until they got past our pressing four and then attack.

England quickly went 1-0 down as none of the back 4 covered themselves in glory.  Cahill was recovering from getting a ball in the chest, Johnson allowed the cross to come in too easily, Jones was out of position and Baines allowed Sanchez to get in front of him and head down past the lumbering Forster in goal.

Adam looked confident but his first time in the spotlight came when taking two corners from the right hand side.  His set pieces have always been a bit hit and miss and he hit the first man with one and then tried a short on to Johnson which went straight to a Chile player as the nation groaned.  After that though he got into it, some superb close control as you’d expect and came close to equalizing as he picked up a Squirrel pass and saw his shot half-blocked away for a corner.  Jay on the other hand found no space out on the left and seemed to be starved of possession as England consistently went right.  He didn’t do anything wrong but then he didn’t do anything to make anyone take notice either.  Both Saints were decent in their defensive work in that they got back and helped out the full backs – Adam getting back to put a tackle in to concede a corner after Baines had done what Adam did earlier and passed a corner straight to a Chilean player.  There was one ‘shit youself’ moment as Adam overstretched for a ball and collapsed but mercifully he got up and carried on.   Jay was subbed on the hour and Adam with 15 to go and Gary Cahill managed to give away a second goal, presenting the ball to Sanchez on the half way line who ran through and scored after waiting for the big cry of ‘TIMBERRRRR!’ and then waiting for Forster to topple over and crash to earth, just to make it easy for him.

There was some entirely predictable Saints baiting in the media in the immediate aftermath of the game, referring rather childishly to “the failed Southampton experiment” but it seems that on reflection, most are agreed that Adam Lallana was one of England’s best players, if not the best.  Jay I feel, will look back and wish he’d done more with his opportunity and he must be hoping that Hodgson has seen enough in training to give him another go.  There must be a lot in that as players like Milner and Cleverley must be magnificent in training because they repeatedly do jack shit of any use when they get on the pitch.

Onto the Germany game and England have a much stronger line-up with Adam Lallana again in the starting XI, playing in an attacking midfield three with Squirrel Head and Andros Townsend behind selfish little arrogant twat Daniel Sturridge.   Sir Rickie and J-Rod were on the bench and England have a decent side out bar the inclusion of Man United’s 5^th choice centre half in Smalling and about their 8^th choice midfielder in Cleverley.

We had a decent five minutes at the start looking much more alert and alive than we did against Chile.  Adam was stationed out in the graveyard slot on the left and hardly getting a touch of the ball as England went through Townsend on the right who is very direct but frequently just runs into defenders.  The German reserve team we were up against weren’t offering much but were containing us comfortably, mainly due to Rooney having one of those games where you wonder if he’s ever seen a football before and where do I start on Daniel Sturridge?  Football, as you are taught when you are 5 years old, is a team game.  England winning the World Cup was still a recent memory when I was growing up and there was always talk of Sir Alf picking the best team and not the best individuals with Jimmy Greaves not playing and all that.  I’m sure Sturridge is brilliant in training and has a load of skill but in training he’s got a ball to himself.  In a team context where you have to occasionally share the ball with a team mate, he’s a fucking greedy twat who adds nothing and makes the team worse.  Elsewhere, Kyle Walker made a bid to do the impossible and be worse than Glenn Johnson and the highlight was him firing a free kick across the pitch from right to left about 40 yards behind Ashley Cole and out for a throw in.  Possession is King.

As we approached half time, the Germans had their first attack with Hart having to beat away Mertesacker’s header which he won easily ahead of Smalling.  The ball ended out on the right and was crossed straight back in where Mertesacker again beat Smalling and guided a very good header into the far corner of the net giving Hart no chance at all.

Adam started the second half on fire, looking after the ball well, spinning past players and laying it off for one of Mr.Greed or Squirrel Head to lose it.  It’s been said for years that England don’t look comfortable in possession but in Adam we have a player who is.  Another one was sat on the bench, probably laughing to himself every time Mr.Greed cocked something up.  Andros Townsend was a threat and cut in and smacked a left footed shot onto the post.  Townsend does some flash things which make you overlook that he’s run headlong into traffic the previous 10 times he’s had the ball and not delivered the cross.  Methinks he’d be better on the left.

Henderson is about to come on and I assume Cleverley is going off but Roy’s given up on the result and it’s Gerrard going off.  Henderson’s first contribution is to play a superb ball through the German defence to Sturridge who tries to use his one foot to control it instead of the one he should have used and the chance is gone.  Heather Mills is more two footed than Sturridge.

Sir Rickie eventually comes on with 15 to go in place of Lallana and as Rooney has already been replaced with Barkley, he’s up front with Sturridge.  The big man’s 15 minutes saw him keep possession, lay off four long passes up to him straight to an England player and generally contribute more in 15 minutes than Sturridge managed in 90.  We didn’t manage any more shots however and so we lost 1-0 to Germany’s reserves.

These two friendlies will have served a purpose if Roy Hodgson learns some lessons and has the courage to act on them.  Hart is still our best goalkeeper by a mile, Johnson and Walker are both garbage and an alternative (who plays right back for Saints) is required. Smalling and Jones aren’t good enough yet and Cleverley and Henderson are piss poor, Sturridge should not start and Townsend needs to get his head up more often.

Out of the Saints boys I’d say Adam Lallana has done himself the world of good and will have moved significantly up the pecking order.  Though he only played 15 minutes, I’d be surprised if Sir Rickie hasn’t shown more value to Roy Hodgson, especially as he’s seen Sturridge play like that!  Sir Rickie has never played up front with Squirrel Head and the Double Scouse combination really should be given a go – I guarantee it would make that part of the team function a lot better.  J-Rod will I think be relying on injuries to get near the squad again before the World Cup but you never know.  If he manages to rattle in 10 goals before the next squad is picked then he’ll get another chance.  If there’s any justice in the world then Nathaniel Clyne will have greatly benefited from the performances of Johnson and Walker.

Watching England friendlies is still frustrating though.  Now back to the real stuff on Saturday.  Bring on The Gooners, a 2-0 win and top of the league, in my dreams.

Premier League Match 11 - Southampton 4 Hull City 1

Hey! Southampton! Go Away....

Hull City were the visitors to St.Mary’s for a 3pm kick off on a Saturday.  The torrential rain of the morning had given way to a kind of misty damp rain which when added to the cold, made the walk to the ground over the Itchen Bridge not that great.  Every time I looked at the Championship table last year, I was expecting Hull to fall away but they didn’t and ended up getting promoted in 2^nd place.  I’ve never particularly rated Steve Bruce as a manager but this was a serious achievement and he’s signed a few players for this season who are decent like Curtis Davies, Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore on loan.  They are sat happily in mid-table as they are hard to beat, especially at home and have managed to get points of teams that will be around them this season.  However, a quick look down their line up reveals another one to add to the list of “How the Fuck Are They Getting a Game in the Premier League?”.  Adding to Phillippe Senderos and Liam Ridgewell, I give you Paul McShane... you have to be having a laugh.  I’m sure there’s a 10 minute, one man car crash You Tube compilation video of him making a mess of just about every defensive situation you could find yourself in.

I expect that when the fixtures came out, games against Saints were ones that they and their supporters would have been targeting as likely fixtures to get points in.  To be fair, both teams have surpassed the expectations of everyone so far this season but if Saints are serious about the Top 6 then we need of course to beat Hull at home.  I understand that Roy Hodgson is in the crowd to come and see some English players.  It’s going to be hard for him because usually there’s only 1 or 2 on any one team whereas we have 6 starting plus Morgan Schneiderlin but more of that later.  Saints are unchanged from the last league game and the only notable selection is on the bench where Sam Gallagher is preferred to both Tadanari Lee and Gaston Ramirez who are both hopefully paying the price for being absolutely gash on Wednesday at Sunderland.  In Gaston’s case, it’s probably more likely that he’s been allowed to join up with Uruguay for their World Cup Playoff match against Jordan who are massive up front and are very quick to spread their legs and every fucking move they make is on TV.  What do you mean, wrong Jordan?

Hull have come dressed as Chelsea and away we go.  My 9 year old son notices straight away that we have a female linesperson.  He said it was “unusual” which is much better than getting all Richard Keys and Andy Gray and mentioning ironing, cooking or smashing it.  The first decent action sees Lallana pick the ball up on the right and totally do Figueroa with a variation of the Cruyff turn before putting a marvellous cross into the mixer which was expertly flicked clear by the diving Curtis Davies as Sir Rickie closed in.

We’re looking good though despite Big Vic appearing to be in daydream mode with his passes generally not reaching the intended target.  On Hull’s rare appearances in our half, the muscular presence of Sagbo is causing a few problems for Jose but we don’t care about any of those negatives on 15 minutes as Clyney digs out a cross from near the corner, Sir Rickie rises at the back stick and heads it across and in comes Morgan Schneiderlin to place a header over Harper and into the top corner, simple as you like.

Hull are playing a novel defensive system which allows Saints players to run around in the Hull penalty area totally unhindered.  Clyne is away again down the right and fires over another superb cross which is just over the head of Sir Rickie in the middle.  Are Hull going to sort things out back there or is this going to be over by half time?

The answer is that they seem determined to give us the win and Sir Rickie just puts a little bit too much on a ball into the unmarked Lallana’s feet.  Where’s Paul McShane?

A minute later and the ball is with King Artur who taps it to Dejan Lovren.  Under no pressure he passes it forty yards forwards to Sir Rickie who under no pressure plays in Lallana who is racing into the penalty area as Harper comes out like a twat and hoofs him over.  By giving us a penalty, the keeper has of course given us a goal but Hull had 10 outfield players who did sod all to try and prevent the move forwards.  A booking for the keeper which was the right decision as it was out by the corner of the penalty area and then the inevitable happened. Sir Rickie, bang, top corner, 33/33.  Get the fuck in and the Northam sing Rickie Lambert – he’s off to Brazil!  Over to you Roy.

And then a ridiculous moment.  As I’m old enough, I’m put in mind of Matt le Tissier in the opening game on the 1988 season as he waltzed through the West Ham defence to score.  Sir Rickie plays a ball front he left touchline into Lallana who is 30ish yards out.  He turns away from Huddlestone before running at the right back.  He darts inbetween El Mohamady and Davies towards the goal line and cuts in and curls it round Harper and into the far corner.  It’s fucking magic, it really is.  3-0 and this game is done, it really is.  On looking at the replay it gets better every time but there’s another classic for the McShane highlight reel as instead of closing Adam down as he cuts in, he totally fails to sense the danger and goes to wrong way. Adam Lallana – he’s off to Brazil !!!

The rest of the first half sees Curtis Davies finally get near a Saints player as he shoves Shaw over and gets booked and then throws a five year olds tantrum.  A lack of concentration at the back almost gifts Hull a goal as we don’t mark up at a corner and Rosenior’s powerful downward header is kicked off the line by a combination of King Artur and Lovren.  We have reached half time and it has been fantastic.

When you’re leading at half time (at risk of sounding like Dave Merrington) what you don’t want to do is give the other team a sniff at the start of the second half and we do well at this and have a period of possession without going anywhere but at least Hull haven’t got the ball.  I would like us to push forward and get another goal but we do the opposite.  King Artur rolls it out to Big Vic on the edge of the box.  As he does so he points towards Clyne, telling Big Vic where to knock it but he lets it run across him and gets burgled by Livermore.  Livermore slips it to Sagbo who guides an excellent effort past Lovren and King Artur and into the bottom corner.  Shit!  Big Vic is looking up at the sky.  It is fair to say that isn’t the best game he’s ever had.

We are now officially in sloppy mode and invite Hull to get back into it.  We allow Huddlestone a free shot from 20 yards which luckily flew straight at King Artur who didn’t spill a drop of vodka as he caught it without moving.  We are still creating chances but the final ball isn’t working and Hull are actually defending now and getting blocks in.  Meyler diverts a Sir Rickie cross that was heading for Shaw away for a corner which is delivered into the mixer and Jose tries a ridiculous volley which cannons off another Hull player and away.  Having said they were defending better they then allow Lallana to bring down a King Artur bomb on his chest and set off towards the goal, playing a 1-2 with Sir Rickie before firing a bit too close to Harper who makes a “one for the cameras” save.  The resulting corner is scrambled to the edge of the box and Morgan’s blast is blocked on the line by Meyler.

Just after the hour mark and Steve Davis on for Big Vic which he’s probably pleased about and Hull take off Meyler who has been anonymous and bring on Danny Graham, a striker who hasn’t scored since he was an Under-13.  I am not unduly concerned.  10 minutes later we bring on Dani Osvaldo for Sir Rickie who is a bit of a better substitute striker.

Dani immediately beats three players out on the left wing and he looks very lively showing some great touches in his first few minutes.  He’s taken over the back post position as well as JWP slings over a cross and the Argentinian-Italian Pirate Rock ‘n’ Roller leaps high and gets a decent header in which Harper grabs on the line.

Morgan manages to get the booking that he was threatened with after about 10 minutes when he clumps Rosenior over and it’s standing ovation time as Adam Lallana is replaced with Corky.  I wonder if Roy was out of his seat.  He bloody well should have been.

The struggle that has been much of this second half disappears in the last minute as J-Rod tried to flick a ball to himself but it went directly to Clyne who fizzed over a cross which Curtis Davies missed, leaving Steve Davis all the time to bring it down and crack it past Harper and into the corner to make it 4-1.  It’s always nice to get a late goal and I dedicate this one to the fans who left early and missed it. I will never understand that.  We look briefly like we might threaten a fifth but J-Rod takes too long to get his shot away and instead, we pass the ball about until the ref has had enough.  4-1 home win and happy days.

‘Chelsea Dagger’ by The Fratellis is playing over the stadium PA as I make my way to the concourse but I’m thinking of another Chelsea, I’m thinking of ‘Chelsea Wanker’ at work as a quick look at the screen in the concourse says to me that we are 3^rd in the Premier League and Chelsea are 4th.  This is quite mad.  How strange it is to be happy about the Baggies getting a point at Chelsea and Palace holding Everton to a draw.  In seasons gone by (and I’m talking pre-2005 as well), I’d have been wanting Chelsea and Everton to grind the smaller teams into the dust but not anymore.  It got even more surreal on Sunday as Spurs lost at home and Man City lost at Sunderland and we didn’t drop any places.  In addition, Arsenal lost to Man United so we are now just the 3 points off of the top of the entire league.  Like I said, quite mad.

As for the game well we were brilliant in the first half and blew away a spirited Hull side.  I expected the second half to be little more than playing the game out but the stupid goal we let in meant we lost about 20 minutes out of the game whilst Hull sniffed an unlikely comeback.  The 4^th goal at the end gave a final score that was a more accurate reflection of the game.  Unusually for an ex-Manchester United player, Steve Bruce was very complimentary of us saying that his side battled well but Saints were just too good and he’s spot on.  I liked the way Hull battled and they certainly seem to have more about them than some of the other sides that will be around the relegation zone in May.  I hope they survive.  Again, like Fulham a few weeks ago though with Phillippe Senderos, you can’t expect too much defensively when you have Paul McShane in your side.  I think Curtis Davies just had a poor match but McShane is really not up to it.

Mauricio talked his post match interview with much more enthusiasm than he managed when picking up the Manager of the Month award.  His (or the translator’s) favourite word is ‘amazing’ and he’s right to describe our performances this way.  I loved that he also talked of the international calls being a positive thing as you won’t find many Premier League Managers who agree with that.  It’s interesting that he spoke glowingly of Morgan Schneiderlin and how he surely can’t be too far away from a French call up.  I liked the little touch of reminding them that he’s probably qualified to play for England.  If I was the French FA, I’d be seeing that quote and seeing Hodgson in the stand and be getting on the phone.

As for the England boys, well Adam Lallana and Sir Rickie were outstanding and J-Rod did well without excelling.  Luke Shaw and JWP had excellent matches but the star Englishman aside from Lallana was Nathaniel Clyne who defended in his usual ‘unbeatable’ fashion and managed to get forward and sling over at least 4 excellent crosses.  Hodgson must have been drooling at what he saw and he was seen joking with The Don on Match of the Day.  Hopefully it was nothing about feeding a monkey.  Seriously though.... Glenn Johnson, Kyle Walker, Chris Smalling or Nathaniel Clyne for right back?  Hmmm, tough one.

For now though, Clyne’s not there but Adam, Sir Rickie and J-Rod are in the England squad for Friday’s match against Chile and next Tuesday against Ze Germans.  It now carries slightly more interest than the average England friendly.  No injuries please as we need all the lads for a 1^st v 3^rd clash the following Saturday versus Arsenal at The Emirates where we got humped 6-1 last year.  I somehow feel that this time will be different.  If we win by 2 goals then we could actually be top of the league.  Now that would be completely mad.

I’m off to work to have some serious banter at the expense of a Chelsea fan.

Capital One Cup 4th Round - Sunderland 2 Southampton 1

"Don't give it the big one Gus, we let you win"

A midweek away game at Sunderland in the Capital One Cup.  It doesn’t get much more attractive than that.  For Saints it is a chance to get through to a major quarter final and a home tie against Chelsea which, given our current form is nothing to be unduly worried about.  As soon as the Sunderland away draw came out I was rather pessimistic about our chances and this was even before our mate Gus took over from Right wing Paolo.  Though they are a poor side, Sunderland are a Premier League side and on their own patch and we will no doubt rest some players.  The question of course, how many players will we rest.

6.45 and the team news is in – 10 changes, oh dear.  I’d kind of hoped for about 5 but we’ve gone for the full monty.  Superkelv in goal, Chambers, Fox, Jos and Maya in defence, Davis, Corky,  Harrison Reed and Gaston in midfield, J-Rod and Tadanari up front.  As I hear that I think our chances of winning are pretty slim.  A lot will of course depend on the Sunderland line up and the mood darkens as I see that they have a strong, experienced looking side out including O’Shea, Bardsley, Wes Brown and his Mysteriously Orange Head, Colback, Adam Johnson and the poor man’s Emile Heskey in Jozy Altidore.

Saints start well and have the first sniff of goal and Steve Davis fires in a low cross from the right and Lee slides in, gets a touch and it goes wide.  He then has a shot from miles out and smashes it miles over.  We look good for the first 10 minutes and despite having all the first team players, Sunderland look very poor.  They have Jozy Altidore up front who is less of a threat than the Stoke goalkeeper from last week.  He takes aim from the edge of the box and shanks it wide and then steams straight into Superkelv when trying to connect with a corner and looks surprised when it’s given as a foul.

The rest of the first half turns into a complete bore with Harrison Reed showing up well for Saints in a positive way and Tadanari Lee being Sunderland’s main ball winner.  Every time he goes near it, it just bounces off and goes to a Sunderland player.  Adam Johnson finds himself in acres on our left wing and gets in a cross under no pressure and then I notice Danny Fox in his usual position of defending the left hand edge of the penalty area and letting the winger have the rest of the pitch.

As the half draws to a close, a corner of ours is half cleared and ends up with Corky about 30 yards out.  He attacks the box and just as you think he’d going to run into someone he sorts his feet out and pokes a pass to Gaston who just has Mannone to beat as he comes in from the right.  Left foot, first time, over the bar, fucking shit.  There is nothing left in the first half and half time is here and if anyone can get more than 2 minutes of highlights out of it then I’d be amazed. Considering they have a nearly full strength team out, Sunderland are shocking and we should really be in front.

No changes at half time but Sunderland come out with more intent as a move down the left ends with a cross into Altidore who lays it off for Gardiner who should really have done better than shoot straight at Superkelv who blocked with his legs.

J-Rod tries a very speculative long range effort which barely reaches Mannone and then Gaston gets on the ball in midfield, drives forward and then chips a ball into thirty yards of vacant pitch with no Saints player anywhere near it.  What the fuck was that?  My son informs me that Gaston has very good passing stats on FIFA 14 which makes everything alright of course.  What are his stats for hitting aimless shite to no one son?  Looks like he pressed the X button instead of A doesn’t it.  (Xbox joke).  Pressing the right button is Mauricio or maybe Jesus as is reserves night and off comes the truly desperate Tadanari Lee to be replaced with a proper footballer in JWP which will at least get Gaston off of set piece detail.

As JWP settles into the game, Corky gets the wrong side of Colback as he bursts forward and pulls him back to earn an inevitable booking.  Everyone piles into our box and the free kick comes in and lands on the mysteriously orange head of Wes Brown who despite being about six yards out, has no player anywhere near him.  He heads back across and Altidore has a free header from four yards.  Needless to say he couldn’t score and heads it straight at Superkelv who probably should have held it but parries it back out to Bardsley who just about stabs it over the line despite Big Jos’ effort to keep it out.  Scruffy as you like but totally preventable as allowing someone a free header that close to your goal is not really good practice.

So, 1-0 down and what have we got.  To be quite honest we’ve got fuck all as we fail to make much impression going forward.  We do however have a penalty shout as we finally put together a decent move and Reed and Davis combine to free Chambers in the box.  He’s backing towards the goal as the ball gets to him and Colback has hold of his arm and pulls him over.  Such is our form with penalties this season that this is never going to be given and it isn’t, even though it’s a pretty good shout.  We have another half shout as Davis is felled by an untidy challenge from Orange head but this one has no chance at all.

Despite not playing well we are still getting chances due to general Sunderland ineptitude and Mannone smashed a clearance against J-Rod and must have shat himself as it looped back and over his head before dropping wide.

Big Jos manages to get himself booked when he gets penalised to fuck all and lets Lee Mason know he’s done fuck all by having a comedy strop and toe punting the ball up the pitch.  Unlike the last free kick, Craig Gardiner sizes it up for ages, sends Larsson away and then smashes it into Row Z for one which might end up in a Danny Baker ‘Wanky Football’ DVD compilation.  Our performance is being called ‘tame’ by the commentator on the stream on veryjerkystopstart.com which I’m watching.  It’s hard to argue.

We make a substitution which announces some intent as Steve Davis comes off to be replaced by Adam Lallana but it doesn’t really stop the pointless meandering performance we’re putting in.  Mauricio and Jesus then make the 3^rd substitution which I think is significant and Gaston is hooked and replaced by Academy striker Sam Gallagher who comes on for his debut.  We’re one goal down, 10 minutes to go and we remove our international playmaker and replace him with a kid.  To me, no disrespect to Gallagher but it shows that Gaston has been that bad.

Gaston isn’t the only one who’s had better days though.  I thought Adam Johnson was brilliant when he first arrived on the scene before he moved to the Promising Young English Player Career Graveyard at Manchester City.  Here he gets the ball on the left and sets off towards goal and then hoofs it into the crowd when attempting to cross it.  Maybe he saw Altidore in the middle and thought he’d cut out the middle man and just give Saints a goal kick himself.

The Johnson break was a warning that we didn’t heed though and another break down our right sees Foxy covering for our absent central defence and coming across from left back to make an excellent tackle.  Unfortunately it fell to Altidore who simple played it to Seb Larsson who was standing where Foxy had vacated and he drilled it across Superkelv into the far corner.  Game, set and bollocks and Altidore technically has two assists.  It’s not been a good day.

We win a free kick as Gallagher is flattened by Brown.  As we’re 2-0 down and on our way out, Mason decides to let us have this one.  Oh, maybe we’re not out just yet as JWP floats in a cross, Big Jos gets up at the back stick to head it across and Maya Yoshida thumps a header past Mannone to give us a squeak of getting out of jail.  In the event we only have the one further half chance and it falls to JWP whose volley is closer to the moon above the Stadium of Light than the goal.  Full time and to be honest, what a load of shit.

We were rubbish today on the whole and deserved to get beat.  They’ll dress it up in the post match interviews and on the Official website as if we were unlucky or something but we played with urgency for the first 10 minutes and also the last 10 minutes when we were 2-0 down and for the middle period we just let the game meander along giving the initiative to a desperately shite Sunderland side.   Sunderland really were shite and the team we had out there should have done a lot better than that.   I’d say that none of the out of favour, experienced players put their hands up to be selected for the Premier League side.  Maya Yoshida was better than Big Jos but none out of those two, Superkelv, Foxy, Corky or Steve Davis did anything to suggest they’ll be moving up the pecking order soon.  J-Rod looked like he was wondering what he’d done to warrant getting picked for this game.  The better performances came from Calum Chambers and Harrison Reed who both tried to do the right thing all the time which was encouraging.

I’ve left out Gaston Ramirez and Tadanari Lee so far to give them their own paragraph as they were both absolute bollocks.  Lee is just clearly not good enough, in exactly the same way that Mayuka isn’t good enough.  A decent strike to score the 4^th goal in a 4-0 win in the Championship does not make you good enough for playing in the Premier League and he clearly isn’t so why are we bothering with him.  Gaston clearly has the ability but he can’t be arsed to try and adapt to the English game and that’s the biggest crime of all.  It can’t be easy playing in games like this when you’re an international footballer but you’ve got to try.  After the first 20 minutes he disappeared, re-appearing only to miss our easiest chance which a player of his ability should bury and appearing again to be substituted to be replaced by an 18 year old on his debut when we were only 1-0 down.  The only question remaining about Gaston is how much of a loss we’re prepared to take to sell him.  He may turn things around and make a contribution as stranger things have happened – look at the example of Punch last season – but I reckon he’ll be gone, probably on loan to somewhere in Italy in January.

There are a few different ways of looking at the selection issue.  Maybe Mauricio feels that we don’t have the strength in depth and that he only has 14 players he trusts in the league.   Even if we did only use last weeks starting XI plus Dani, Corky and Steve Davis, it’s going to take a bigger miracle than England winning the World Cup in 2014 for us to even finish in the Top 4.  It’s the half arsed approach that annoys me – for example, if we’re going to give kids a game then why play older players who we all know aren’t good enough like Tadanari Lee.  Why not play Sam Gallagher from the start and why play Fox – we all know what he can and can’t do – why not give Matt Targett a game.  If on the other hand, you’re serious about winning the game then play first team players where we do have decent cover.  For example, we know that Corky is a decent Premier League player so why not play one of Morgan or Big Vic tonight.  If Osvaldo is fit, why not play one of him and Sir Rickie? 

My overriding feeling is one of an opportunity missed. I was a 10 year old at Wembley in 1979 when we got to the League Cup Final and played Cloughie’s Nottingham Forest.  We lost but it was a major final and it still is today despite the efforts of many Premier League clubs including ourselves.  Saints have had finals in 1976, 1979 and 2003... so three major finals since 1901.  We’re not exactly spoilt are we?  We all had a great time at the JPT final but the League Cup is better and you qualify for Europe through it which is one of our stated aims.  I’m sure everyone has their opinion about the selection issue today but to me, risking a couple of players would have got us past a pretty woeful Sunderland side and into the last 8 with a quarter final at home.  Unless we draw the Skates, I will not be getting too excited about the FA Cup either.

As it write it’s nice to have a positive to distract from the memory of last night in that it’s just been announced that J-Rod and Adam Lallana have joined Sir Rickie in the England squad.  Fair play to the lads and it’s great recognition for the club.  I have to say that I’m very surprised that J-Rod has been called up and equally surprised that Nathaniel Clyne hasn’t been when out of all the Saints English players, he’d be the one most likely to be in the starting Xi in my opinion, given the shite options available at right back.  It’s also interesting that Hodgson has kept all the players he usually has so none of the dross like Milner, Johnson, Smalling and Cleverley have been left out so it’s a big squad but over two friendlies against Chile and Germany, one would hope that all the Saints boys get game time.  Well done boys.

England is for another day though as on Saturday we have a ‘must win’ game against Hull who judging by their performance at Spurs a few weeks back, will try and park the bus.  They’ve got a decent number of points already this season and are comfortably in mid table but we of course, should win.  The big boys will be back and hopefully by 5pm Saturday, the Capital One Cup will be but a faded bad memory.

Premier League Match 10 - Stoke 1 Southampton 1

Invented in Stoke, Allegedly

Last year we went to Stoke when they had a fantastic home record and we came away with a very creditable 3-3 draw which would have been a win but for a last minute goal from Cameron Jerome, which though brilliant was a goal the like of which he’ll never score again in his life.  Mind you, he plays for Palace now so he’ll probably never score any type of goal at all. 

Stoke decided to dispense with Tony Pulis in the summer who had achieved great things in making Stoke a proper established Premier League club but had done it using a tactic which rhymes with Woooooof!  The man the Stoke hierarchy decided upon to take them forward is Mark Hughes who has been nothing but a disaster in his last couple of managerial appointments.  In fact, Hughes messed up QPR so badly that even the managerial genius of Harry Redknapp couldn’t save them even though he had 30 matches and about £30 million quid (***extreme sarcasm alert***).  Hughes’ mission is not only of course to keep Stoke up but to change the playing style.  A quick look down the list of players sees the names of Huth, Shawcross, Nzonzi and Crouch who have an average height of about 7 foot so I’m guessing we shouldn’t expect too much pretty football today.  We all remember Nzonzi from last year when he went to stamp on Corky, missed, got sent off and then somehow got it overturned.  My favourite Shawcross moment was when he came on for England against Sweden and tried to push Zlatan Ibrahimovic about who responded by basically picking up the Stoke hard man and throwing him out the way.

The media have this week been trying to sell Dani Osvaldo to Juventus as he’s apparently unhappy and this will no doubt be fuelled further by the fact that he’s still injured as a back injury of course means that you are unhappy and leaving.  Other than that it’s been a love-in with all and sundry not having caught on to how good we are, the pressing game, the defensive record, the English core, the academy etc etc.  All very nice and it’s an unchanged team for us after the Fulham performance from last week with Guly dropping off the bench and being replaced with the fit again Steve Davis.

Away we go and it’s a quiet start for about 11 seconds.  The 12^th second sees Asmir Begovic launch the first of no doubt many wind assisted hooooof-bombs forward towards Peter Crouch and the 13^th second sees Dejan and Jose let it bounce through to King Artur who can only watch from the penalty spot as it balloons over his head and lands in the net.  There is only word that can do this justice and it begins with an F.  It takes something special to score against us these days doesn’t it?  My personal experience of the goal is that I’m listening to the Radio Solent commentary and I have no idea what’s happened.  As the ball goes back to Begovic they’re not talking about anything to do with the action on the pitch and then it’s “we’ve just seen something remarkable here at the Brittania”.  I’m listening and whilst I can guess that someone’s scored, I have no idea who and then Big Dave cuts in with “Begovic has launched...” and I now know that we’ve let in some sort of freak goal.  That F word again.

They then start crapping on about what a lift it is for Stoke and how we’re up against it and what a shock it will be to us.  Hang on, it’s a complete fluke and we have 95 minutes to get it back.  It’s just long ball football after all, you bang it long towards a big target man and hope for the best.  As it happens this time, Stoke hit the jackpot but this would happen once out of about a million I would guess.

Still, the Stoke fans obviously think that relying on a 1 in a million chance is better than trying to actually play some football so every time Begovic gets it from here on in there are cries of ‘shoooooot’.  All very amusing I’m sure.  However, it really should be 2-0 on 6 minutes as a corner given away by Big Vic’s tackle, is crossed into our box and it falls to Shawcross who is six yards out in front of the goal.  He waves a foot at it and in really shite fashion is comes off his standing leg and goes wide.  It was lucky it fell to him and not one of their more technical players like Huth or Jonathan Walters.  We have a corner of our own on 10 minutes following a great run and cross by Lallana and the subsequent JWP corner is met by Dejan Lovren at the back post and his header scrapes just wide of the post.

The tide, such as it was has now officially turned and Stoke are resorting to the usual aimless shit up towards Crouch and Walters.  So much for the brave new dawn eh Sparky.  Big Vic is beginning to dominate in the middle of the park and demonstrates some skill I didn’t know he had when he pulled off one of those spin turn that Anders Svensson used to do, totally beating Whelan.  Unfortunately then he decided that he’d earned the right to have a pop from thirty yards and shanked it well wide.

On the half hour and the chances are coming.  Sir Rickie brings down a ball which held up in the wind and played J-Rod in but he had to hit it first time as the defender came over and lashed it high over the bar.  From the next move the ball finds itself fed out to JWP on the right who bent in a wonderful cross behind the defenders but just in front of J-Rod and Sir Rickie who were both steaming into the box.

Merrington is giving it large about us trying to nick an equalizer before half time and as I’ve always said about Dave, he’s a genius as we break out via Clyne, Lallana and JWP with a passing move on the floor which definitely confused the locals who thought we were cheating.  JWP curled in a cross of Beckham-esque precision onto the head of J-Rod who thumped a header downwards which bounced up and over Begovic and landed in the far side of the net.  I don’t give a shit whether he meant to bounce it over the keeper or not but if he did then great and it he didn’t then who can begrudge us a bit of luck after their goal.  OK… can anyone tell me what the goal celebration was all about cos that looked for all the world like a wanker sign.  Answers on a post card.

Half time and you can imagine it being like a Sunday League team talk in our dressing room.  What’s Spanish for “we’ve got the wind in the second half lads and mind that dogshit on the edge of the penalty area and no one’s allowed more than one slice of orange and don’t forget to bang the mud off your boots at the end”

The second half starts the same at the first ended with Saints on the attack and Shaw winning a corner when his cross was headed away from Sir Rickie. Stoke immediately fashion a decent chance as Walters stabs a pass through to Arnautovic whose blast at the far post is well parried away by the flying King of Poland.  As a rule though, Stoke can’t get out of their own half now and then Clyne ran at Pieters who slid in and blocked his cross away for a corner.  It’s hit his arm as he’s slid in to block in exactly the same way as Spurs got given one last week against Hull.  I’m not saying that this is a penalty for a second as I don’t think it is but on another day we could have been given it.

There’s a spot on pinball around the edge of the box ends with Nzonzi tripping Morgan.  Sir Rickie deems that it’s a bit too close for him and in the event, JWP takes it and it’s over the bar, flicking the roof of the net as it goes.  A big chance wasted and in hindsight (which is a wonderful thing) Sir Rickie should have just put his foot through it.

If there’s one player on the bench who is not suited to shit conditions at the Brittania, it’s Gaston Ramirez but he’s on with the unlucky J-Rod being the man making way.  The thinking is clear as we are having lots of possession but we need to get the Great Gaston on the ball which at the moment is following a familiar trajectory, being hurled into our box by Cameron and King Artur saves the resulting effort from Arnautovic and then he and Dejan look down at the loose ball before Dejan eventually pokes it out for a corner.

After a few minutes, Gaston finally gets himself on the ball and sets off towards to Stoke goal.  He knocks it past Huth and into the open space but Huth, like the complete thug that he is, cynically takes two steps towards Gaston and body checks him to the ground.  It’s a fucking disgraceful challenge and regardless of whether he’s the last man or not, I wouldn’t complain if defenders were sent off for this type of thing.   

We have obviously entered the cynical zone in the Potteries as Shaw takes on Cameron who is nowhere near the ball when he just wipes him out and gets booked.  JWP’s ball into the box is lunged at by Shawcross who misses with his leg and stops the ball with the palm of his hand.  Penalty all day long but it down to the ref to see it and of course he doesn’t.  The linesman to be fair is on the other side so he’s never going to give it as he’s looking across a crowded penalty area.  However, the linesman had his moment straight afterwards.  93 minutes are up and King Artur launches it long, Sir Rickie brings it down, turns the defender and plays in Gaston who is clean through but his shot is well blocked by the onrushing Begovic.  It’s a moot point but it’s not offside – it’s not even close.

The final whistle goes and we have to take a point.  It’s a decent point at the end of the day especially given the freak goal conceded but there is a slight tinge of disappointment because as it turns out, a win would have put us 2^nd in the league.  Stoke away is never easy though and they won’t lose many games at home this season.  Mauricio focussed on the character of the team to come back from the freak goal and dominate most of the rest of the game in blustery conditions that don't lend themselves to decent football.  A quick look at the stats will tell you all you need to know about our problems today though in that we had over 60% of the possession but only managed 2 shots on target which is not enough.  Mark Hughes seemed very happy with the point and recognized how good we are now.  It would have been nice if someone had asked him about Begovic now being their joint top scorer.

As for the respective keepers – well Begovic was cool about it and didn’t want to celebrate too much and Artur was quite happy to be interviewed and of course, the best bit was his vow to get those two points back.  To be honest, even if you blame him for today’s goal, he’s still well in credit.  I'm sure much will be made of our unfortunate friends down the road that Begovic used to play for them but let's remember thet he was mainly a sub for them and they had to pay Spurs a million quid in order to sell him to Stoke for next to nothing.  Good work Peter Storrie.   As to the blame game for the goal, when I played myself, I was a centre half and I was always told to not let it bounce.  If the centre half heads the ball instead of letting it bounce then there’s no chance of it ending up in our goal so to be honest, I’d say the centre backs are at least as much to blame as the keeper.  However, if you’re a park player like I was, you’ve probably got a hangover so heading a big booming hoof upfield from the opposition keeper probably isn’t on the ‘to do’ list.  I somehow doubt though that Dejan and Jose had hangovers.

Next up in the league is Hull at home but before that we have a trip to Sunderland in the Capital One Cup 4^th Round, a Sunderland now managed by our old mate Gus Poyet.  I believe that if we put out a weaker 11 changes side in this then we will lose so I hope we keep the number of changes to 5 or 6 for this game.  Maybe we’ll see both Osvaldo and Ramirez start the game and personally I’d like to see Lovren and Wanyama playing.  Somehow, I don’t think they will be.  If I had to guess, it will be Davis; Chambers, Fox, Hooiveld, Yoshida, Cork, Davis, Rodriguez, Ramirez, Guly, Lee...

Gus meanwhile has started how he means to go on with two of his players getting sent off on Saturday so both Cattermole and Dossena won’t be available to play against us.  The last time Gus was involved in a big knockout game, someone from his management team took a shite on the opposition dressing room floor so I hope we send in someone with a mop and bucket before the players go into the changing room on Wednesday night.  A quarter final tie at home to Chelsea awaits the winners.  Bring it on.