Premier League Match 32 - Watford 1 Southampton 3

Do We Have to Buy Him?  Is There a Get Out Clause?

When we talk about coming face-to-face with former Saints managers, games against Pochettino at Spurs were right up there, as was the time when we played Koeman’s Everton. Who can also not forget the time we got humped at home by Claude Puel’s Leicester.  I don’t think anyone really thinks about Nigel Pearson as being one of our former managers before they think about Ostriches but he was manager at St Mary’s for a while and he did a job but I would now compare to the job Mark Hughes did in keeping us up one particular season with what was on the face of it, a quite unremarkable record over the last eight or so games. Whereas Hughes was given a three year contract, Pearson was given the boot by the returning Future friend of Farage Rupert Lowe and he replaced him with Jan Poortvliet, still comfortably the worst manager we’ve ever had despite some very stiff competition.

So much for history, today is Watford again Saints at Vicarage Road. We’ve done relatively well here over the last few years, with last year’s game being memorable for Shane Long scoring after seven seconds, then us dominating more or less the rest of the game without adding a second and then Watford grabbing a jammy equaliser in the last minute as per usual. Pearson took over halfway through the season from the sacked Quique Sanchez Flores who got the bullet for losing to Saints at St Marys.  Watford’s trigger happy owners had the new manager bounce which they would’ve been hoping for and Pearson is still the only manager in the Premier League to have won a game against Liverpool this season but they are still struggling, just a point above the relegation zone and are one of the teams in real danger if any of the bottom five could actually win a game.  In Ismaila Sarr and Troy Deeney they have forward players who are capable of causing us problems and they still have my old mate, the cheating fucker Doucoure in midfield and hopefully with no fans in the ground, the referee and linesman will be able to hear him slap the ball with his hand before it hits the net.

Though the Arsenal game on Thursday was quite depressing in the way we lost it, you have to remember that we are two different teams this season, home and away, chalk and cheese. Watford need to win this game so will be trying to come forward which will play in our hands.  Even with no fans in the stadium, it will take a very brave manager to sit deep in a home game and let the away team have all the possession, when the away team is only a couple of places above you on the table.  If I suggested that to Nigel Pearson, I’m sure he would call me an ostrich or some other sort of animal.

Ralph will be forced into changes after the Arsenal game with Jack Stephens suspended. I would anticipate there being no place with the two players was substituted at half time against Arsenal, namely Valery and Obafemi.   Hojbjerg picked up an injury at the end of the Arsenal game so there be a change there and it will be interesting to see if Danny Ings starts after playing two games in quick succession.

In the event, KWP, Vestergaard, Romeu, Long and Smallbone all started.  It all makes sense to be honest with Armstrong having disappeared in the 2^nd half on Thursday.  Watford look ok on paper by the central defenders Dawson and Cathcart are an obvious weakness.  Championship players for next season.  Watford have adorned their stadium with banners like everyone has and the notable ones are Graham ‘Do I Not Like That’ Taylor and Elton John.  Where’s fucking John Barnes for the half time singalong?

Away we go – The opening 10 minutes very scruffy with Saints laying down a marker to Watford‘s plans of getting the ball at Deeney as quickly as possible with Vestergaard and Bednarek winning headers and even if they’re not heading it away cleanly, we are picking up the second balls. There is a dangerous moment as Sarr gets to the line and pulls it back to no one on the edge of the penalty area but overall it’s a scrappy mess.

We are trying to play with KWP and Smallbone showing up well on the right hand side and the first sustained period of possession ends with Ings flicking a ball through to Shane Long which he drills straight at the goalkeeper. Decent move though.

Saints are getting into it now.  We know what we’re in for from Watford and 15 minutes have gone by.  Vestergaard knocks a ball into midfield to Smallbone who has come off the wing and he plays a simple pass to Ings.  His first touch took it past Cathcart, a second touch took it past Dawson before passing the ball into the far corner of the net giving Foster no chance at all. Brilliant goal.  So fucking good.

Watford reply by showing a basic lack of intelligence when they go forward.  Our centre half looks like Thor without a big hammer and he is 6 foot 7 and you keep raining balls down on top of him to head away. When we get the ball down we are looking really dangerous and some more incisive passing in the Watford half sees JWP make a run in front of the strikers, stay onside and latch on to a Romeu pass JWP really should do a little bit better than lifting it over Foster and high and wide.

Dawson is having a mare and lets the ball roll under his foot on the half way line to put Shane Long is away but he has just recovered from an injury so is not moving his quickest but Dawson clatters in anyway and get to deserved yellow card. The freekick is 35 yards out and Redmond tries one of those Ronaldo knuckleball efforts which go straight to the goalkeeper. There is another stoppage when Romeu goes up for a header with Sarr and you can tell straight away that Romeu has bust his nose and you can also tell straight away but it’s not gonna keep him off the pitch for very long.  Hard as fuck.

Another Watford long ball over the top down the right wing and it’s a foot race between Sarr and Bertrand. They both have hold of each other and for some reason, Sarr stops running. It’s gone to VAR but as they are both fouling each other then that is not going to get given so he can wag his finger at the referee all he likes. Play to the fucking whistle you child.

Half time and so far so good.  We look perfectly capable of scoring again and dare I say it, the defence has looked really good so far.  McCarthy has hardly touched the ball and there’s more of a safety first approach today.  KWP and Vestergaard have both had excellent games so far.

Pearson has obviously been threatening some people in the half time break as Watford come out much the better side.  With the pressure comes a few corner and shots from Hughes and Deeney well blocked by defenders who are perfectly happy to chuck themselves in the way.  We look very committed and no one is shirking responsibility.  There is nothing particularly scientific from Watford just getting the ball up there and trying to put some pressure on. Bertrand in particular is doing a great job on Sarr and the Watford danger man is squealing on the ground after one hard but fair tackle.

The first sub on 65 minutes seems Armstrong come on for Smallbone who had a decent first half but has understandably faded and hardly touched the ball in the second half. Armstrong’s arrival coincides with us suddenly getting on the ball and playing football again and when we do that, Watford are nowhere near us.

One feature since the league restarted has been the drinks break half way through both halves.  This gives the better managers chance to tweak things but forces everyone to concentrate upon the restart.  Danny Ings is concentrating, Ben Foster isn’t.

Foster, a goalkeeper known for his legendary time-wasting, tries to throw it out quickly to Masina at left back but Ings has read it and picks it off. He is 40 yards out but just heads straight towards the goaland takes on Dawson on the outside before smashing the ball past Foster into the far corner with the aid of a slight deflection and the King of the Scummers strikes again.

We’re at 80 minutes and Watford aren’t really creating much but do get the ball out of the left hand side to Holebas, who has just come on and he puts over a real bastard of a cross in between the defence and the goalkeeper and Bednarek has to do something but it would’ve been better if the thing he did wasn’t to get a touch and send it flying past the goalkeeper to make it 2-1.  Fuck.

Guess Where This is Going?

So how we react? We react by playing some lovely one touch stuff in their half before Romeu plays a ball into Adams who Dawson trashes on the edge of the box. If that’s not clear second yellow card and I don’t know what is but anyway, up steps JWP and from 20 yards and dead central, it’s over the wall and arrowing into the net before anyone can move. Another brilliant goal and 3-1 and this game is over.

It almost gets even better in the last couple of minutes as Adams bundles its way past the labouring Dawson and gets into the box and just when you think it’s going to be the perfect day and he gets his first goal, Foster manages to get something on it and it hits him and dribbles wide. From the resulting corner, Redmond picks up the ball on the edge of the box and takes aim at the far post but takes aim too well and hits it and it bounces about behind via the woodwork.  No matter, we’ll certainly settle for 3-1.

That was magnificent. No other word for it. We’ve had a few this year but that was a perfect away performance - pretty much spot on from first minute to last. Whereas in our last game against Arsenal, it was hard to pick a Man of the match because everyone was pretty ropey, today it’s difficult as there wasn’t a bad performance amongst the starting 11 and even the subs did well when they came on.

Like with the Norwich game, we could only beat what was in front of us and Watford weren’t very good. With Norwich though I felt that they were just genuinely bad but Watford have a little bit more about them but we made them look bad. Their tactic of hitting Deeney early just didn’t work and our relentless pressing of that back four meant that the balls up to him we are pretty aimless and it has to be said, Vestergaard and Bednarek were magnificent in heading everything away. If we didn’t manage to get it away cleanly then we won the 2^nd balls, apart from in a small period just after half-time. The threat of Sarr on the right wing was nullified in a good old-fashioned way by Bertrand who stuck to his task and gave him a couple of digs and after that, he didn’t really want to know. Pereyra, who has a decent goalscoring record for a wide man was totally nullified by the excellent KWP. It’s the sort of performance that changes your perception of certain players and after that, I came away thinking that KWP may be worth buying after all. Whether that will be possible, given that it is Spurs and Daniel Levy, I don’t know.

Bertie Takes Sarr to School

The enforced changes worked out a treat. Vestergaard as already said, was superb in the fight against Deeney and won a massive percentage of the balls in the air. Romeu in midfield gave us more bite and brought a simplicity to the game that was is really useful against opponents like Watford.  After the initial 10 minutes of getting used to playing again, he also moved the ball quickly and well, which is what he’s going to have to do to be a regular in Ralph’s midfield.  I also thought it was interesting to see JWP making more forward runs than usual today, which he could do because of the insurance of Romeu, busted nose and all, behind him.

What can you say about Danny Ings?  He was absolutely fabulous and it’s looking like the fittest player in the league and there was me wondering if he would be able to handle three games in a relatively short space of time. The first goal was brilliant even though he was aided and abetted by the ponderous Watford central defenders Dawson and Cathcart.  Cathcart is more like Horse and Cart.  Danny‘s second goal was being described as a gift. He has read the goalkeepers throw out but he is still about 40 yards from goal when he picks the ball up so how is that a gift? He still got a hell of a lot to do and he did it superbly and absolutely buried it.

The third goal, coming when it did just after we’ve managed to help Watford by sticking it in our net, was the icing on the cake and a superb freekick by JWP.  It would have been great if Che Adams could’ve got a goal at the end but he’ll just have to be content in putting in his most effective Premier League performance so far.

We can definitely talk about the relegation battle now in the context of us having absolutely nothing to do with it. Apart from Norwich, I still see Bournemouth and Villa being the two teams that will go down as well.  I would happily swap either of those for West Ham – that would make my year.  Watford have three winable fixtures including a game against Norwich so they should still have enough to stay up this season.  The biggest disappointment in Watford today was that Nigel Pearson didn’t lose his shit in the press conference and call anybody an ostrich or an aardvark or a water buffalo or anything else. An opportunity missed.

Watching the game on Sky today was less painful that last time out. Alan Smith was again in the commentary chair but as Arsenal weren’t playing, he wasn’t too bad. In the studio, the superstar pundits of the top six have been given a rest so it was Matt Murray, the ex-Wolves goalkeeper and Chris Iwelumo, who used to play for Watford. I thought both of them were absolutely excellent summarisers, in particular Iwelumo who managed to see through the fact that he clearly wanted Watford to win, to give Saints the credit that they merited.

On, on, on and our next game is at home. Fuck it.  Oh and it’s against Manchester City as well, fuck it again. It will be interesting to see whether we do our usual and line up with five defenders and four midfielders and just defend the end of our own penalty area or whether we try and be expansive a bit at least and try and find a way of threatening the opponents goal in home games. For now though, I don’t care and it is a free hit.