Premier League Match 13 - Crystal Palace 1 Southampton 0

 

Richard - Show Me That Piece of Paper When We Get to Half-Time

An away trip to Selhurst Park where we’ve always had a fairly decent record having one win one draw and one defeat in our last three visits. Of course, all anyone wants to talk about when we play Crystal Palace is Wilfried Zaha and one way or another, he will be at the centre of things today.

Zaha the footballer is ridiculously talented and he of course should by now have moved on to bigger and better things than Crystal Palace but we all know the reason that he hasn’t. On the face of it, he is a prodigiously talented, pacey winger or inside forward and over the past couple of years has added more end product to his game whilst playing for a team that has been mid-table or slightly lower. It was no surprise that last season, his numbers improved with Patrick Vieira as manager, as opposed to Roy Hodgson and I half expected him to move on this summer but once again it didn’t happen.

In the past, Palace have been able to hold him to his long-term contract and ask for a fee of £80m plus, which of course no one was prepared to spend and another couple of years have gone by since then and it seems there’s been no serious interest in a player who is now nearly 30. The major flaw in his game of course is the temperament which can manifest itself in a couple of ways. The first is that he just drifts out of games and you don’t notice him but this is something that he has certainly changed in the last couple of years. The other of course is his tendency to completely lose his shit when provoked. It will be interesting to see if Saints employ some wind up tactics today especially with the possibility of Lyanco being in that area of the pitch as well.

From an attacking point of view, it’s not just Zaha who we have to worry about these days with Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise being decent sources of creativity. Palace are not great in a centre forward position with Odsonne Edouard looking a bit like Christian Benteke part two. Last year of course, Palace had Conor Gallagher in the centre of midfield and they are missing him this season having not brought in a decent replacement for the Chelsea loanee. The central defence is strong with Guehi and Andersson being one of the better combinations outside of the Super League 6 but I feel that the full backs can be got at, Joel Ward because he basically isn’t very good and Tyrick Mitchell because of his slight stature and inexperience.

Saints need to step up in this game as we cannot afford another game against a team who are going to be around us this season to go by, after our dismal showings against Villa, Wolves and Everton.  Two of the managers of those two clubs have since been sacked, which shows you how shit they were and both Bruno Lage and Steven Gerrard masterminded (if that’s the right word) wins against us.  It is about how we play today. In common with us, Palace have also made Frank Lampard look like a managerial genius recently and their defeat was arguably even worse, capitulating 3-0 at Goodison Park last week. Once again, we are facing a team that will be relatively low on confidence so we have to unsettled them early and not do what we did against Wolves and Villa and allow them to grow into the game. Over to you Ralph, we lose or we learn remember.

Well it looks like a Lyanco versus Zaha is happening because we have basically gone with the shape that was successful in the second half against Arsenal so Elyounoussi will be right wing back and Che Adams is fit to return in place of Adam Armstrong.  I can’t help but feel that this is Ralph rewarding players who were decent last week, rather than picking a team for this particular game.  Anyhow, Palace are pretty much as expected with Schlupp and Milivojević being the midfield that we have to get at. If they are allowed to freely get the ball to Zaha, Eze and Olise, then we could be in for a difficult afternoon.

Saints actually start quite well with a JWP corner causing a bit of chaos in the 6 yard box but Palace get away with it. Palace’s first foray forward sees them first to the ball about three times in the centre of midfield before Zaha gets away on the left and his low cross was somehow not turned into the net by the sliding Edouard.

We get another example of the shambles of modern officiating after that as Adams spins away on the halfway line and is allowed to get to the edge of the box and cut inside a very half-arsed challenge from Anderssen before curling a shot onto the outside of the post. Everyone goes ‘oooooh’ but the reason that Anderssen wasn’t arsed becomes abundantly clear when the linesman sticks his flag up after the ball has gone out. Absolutely fucking ridiculous. The replay proves that Adams was the only player in the Palace half when the ball was released so I'm sure the flag dickhead could've flagged that one early.

Zaha vs Lyanco: More Fun in Theory Than In Reality

And then the moment we had all been waiting for happened as Zaha knocked the ball off, time stood still, civilisations rose and fell and then Lyanco battered into the back of him. Yellow card for Lyanco and Zaha has a little kick out and gets a yellow as well, which sees Big Patrick on the sidelines kick off.  Fuck knows why – you kick out at a player then you’re lucky it’s not a red.

We are lucky not to go one down soon after as a long ball forward picks out Edouard who flicks it to Olise, who has made a superb diagonal run off the wing. Back it goes to Edouard and he smashes it into the net. Offside, very narrowly but again a very good indication of what we do not do when we are attacking, in running across the pitch to lose defenders.

It’s a false dawn though as far as keeping a clean sheet is concerned and it doesn’t take long to happen.  JWP and Lyanco play triangles and come away with the ball and then Lyanco dawdles and is knocked off the ball by Zaha.  Zaha runs straight into the vacant centre back area and finds Mitchell overlapping on the left and his cross is easily turn into the nearby Edouard. It looks offside to me at first glance but it isn’t and Palace deservedly lead.

Half-time and Ralph has to correct one of the more obvious team selection fuck ups by taking off Diallo, who has been completely invisible and replacing him with Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Away we go and straight away, Saints are passing the ball better and with more confidence.

Che Adams is of course well known for doing all the hard work.  He does this by controlling a long ball whilst holding off Andersson and then links with JWP and he’s clean through against the keeper with ball on his right foot.  Surely this is there to bend around the keeper and inside the far post but no, straight at Guaita.  Has to score.

We are in the ascendency now despite the miss. Caleta-Car strides our defence and links up with AMN.  Forward we go with the ball eventually being given to Stuart Armstrong on the left and he cuts in and smashes it at the near post but unfortunately, he’s 100% accurate and it hits the near post and we get the consolation of a corner as the ball bounces back off of Ward.

Saints are now actually pressing and what do you know, Palace are making mistakes.  Elyounoussi closes down Mitchell and the ball rebounds into midfield where Adams again does the hard work, flicking it around the corner to Aribo, taking on the return pass and as it opens up on his left foot, again he smashes it straight at the goalkeeper.

There’s another chance with Perraud and Adams teeing up JWP, who smashes it a couple of feet wide.  Fuck.  Here come the subs with Elyounoussi and Perraud making way for Djenepo and Edozie and we go full ‘wingers as wing backs’.  Shit or bust but at least it’s positive.

Palace are butchering chances to put the game to bed with Ayew totally failing to pick out Zaha in the middle and instead finding our one and only defender, AMN.  The new wing-backs get involved fairly quickly and there’s a decent move with a bit of purpose that ends with Edozie getting through on the right hand side and hammering a ball across which more by luck than judgement, Guaita manages to get away from the goal.

Mara is on for Stuart Armstrong and in the 90th minute we build, going back into our own half four times in the process before Djenepo breaks rank and puts over a cross which is speculative at best and Mara heads about 20 yards wide.  That sums us up.  Where’s the urgency?  Where’s the attacking plan?  Full time.

Well, we did exactly what we did in the Wolves and Villa games, thus proving that we didn’t learn when we lost, we just lost and then decided to make the same mistakes in more games. Today’s first half was as bad as we have been all season with absolutely no attacking idea, culminating in us going behind just before half-time. We had a couple of chances wasted at the start of the second half but then kind of period of nothing where we had no urgency and it all finished up in the 90th minute with us just passing the ball about and Palace quite happy with 11 behind the ball and us with no plan of how to get through. You sense that we would’ve passed it around until the referee blew his final whistle but eventually someone thought they’d better actually get the ball into the mixer. Garbage.

So, like the Wolves and Villa game we were passive as shit in the first half and allowed the lacking in confidence opposition to build into the game and go in with a 1-0 half-time lead and we did the same again today. In the second half of the other two games we were a little better without ever really looking like scoring and today was exactly the same.  Yes we missed a couple of chances, one of which should definitely have gone in but “We win or we learn”, my big fat fucking hairy arse.

Ralph ultimately got the team wrong and it was not a surprise to me that he picked as close as he could to the Arsenal second half 11.  He did this last year if you remember when we beat Arsenal and then we went to Burnley in the next match for a completely different assignment against a different style of team and he picked the same team again, played the same way and we stunk the place out.  I think the idea as far as Ralph is concerned is to reward the players who played well last week and there is something in that but there is considerably more in picking a team to beat the specific opposition that you are playing against. Do we really pay Ralph the big bucks to stumble across things that work once and the keep trying them regardless of the opposition?  It was obviously not working in that first half – why wait to half time to change it?  I wonder if it is too much of an ego thing to change a team before half time?

Palace away is different to Arsenal at home.  Palace were there to be got at but we didn’t do that and we didn’t expose their lack of confidence and we allowed them to get the ball to the good players and this is why we end up with yet another defeat against a very average team.

Many Saints fans, myself included were looking forward to the Lyanco against Zaha battle but it occurred to me pretty quickly that whilst they are equally had a chance of getting sent off, if it comes down to actual footballing ability then Zaha is streets ahead. Lyanco did well to not get sent off today but he got totally done for what proved to be the winning goal, losing the ball to Zaha his own half.  His personality is such that you really want him to do well but today wasn't a great day for him and unless he managed to get Zaha sent off without getting sent off himself, it was never going to be.  Not having a proper right back and Lyanco being dragged into wide areas didn't help either.

Overall, the back three weren’t bad but the wing-backs offered little going forward especially.  Elyounoussi I think got one decent ball in the Palace half and that was a blocked tackle.  Perraud struggled to get forward and we got easily bypassed in midfield with Diallo again not providing the positional discipline needed to help make the team function.  AMN had a decent half and is clearly ahead now in terms of being the Romeo Lavia replacement but with Lavia nearing fitness, he can soon be used to cover the right back issue.

Che - Everything but the Finish.

Armstrong and Aribo had nice moments but too few and far between and it was another day where the lack of attacking options after the transfer window came back to bite us again. I’m refusing to have a go at Che Adams because he is by far and away the best that we’ve got and he had a decent game today in terms of everything but that which he is judged on - goals.  When you look at our attacking options to change the game, they are basically Adam Armstrong, Theo Walcott and Sekou Mara. There’s a very good chance that whatever player you take off to bring on one of those three is going to result in a downgrading of the teams attacking threat. And another thing, why did we persist with three at the back, even in the last 10 minutes.

So, last week might of been a step forward as far as Ralph was concerned, today was a great leap backwards in what was a pretty dismal defeat. Next up is Newcastle at home – moaning Eddie Howe and all – we need to turn up, for 90 minutes against a very well organized and energetic Newcastle side.

Premier League Match 12 - Southampton 1 Arsenal 1

 

And From That Moment On - Arsenal Knew They Were In a Game

I’ve gone into every home game that we played against Arsenal in the last few years thinking that we had a really good chance as far as games against the Super league clubs go. In that time, Arsenal could be best described as being flaky. Yes they had some good players in the attacking positions but the central midfield would usually quite weak and the defence was always likely to give you something. They arrive at St Mary‘s today, four points clear at the top of the Premier League and I have a feeling that this might be slightly more tricky than a trip to Bournemouth. Instead of Solanke, Tavernier, Billing and Christie, read Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka. And that’s just attacking players…. but it gives you an indication that the clean sheet achieved at Bournemouth is going to be quite difficult to replicate today.

Also, we’re going to be trying to keep a clean sheet and we’re not going to have the services of KWP, who picked up a hamstring injury which probably means that his admittedly outside chance of going to the World Cup in November have gone. With injuries to Reece James, Kyle Walker and Southgate realising that he doesn’t want to take Trent Alexander Arnold,, his outside chance was becoming more of a good chance, so it really is sods law that he’s picked up an injury as well. His normal replacement at right back would probably be Ainsley Maitland-Niles but of course he is on loan from Arsenal so is ineligible for today’s game, giving Ralph a probable choice between Moussa Djenepo and the left footed Juan Larios for the right back role, be that as part of a back four or more likely, a back five.

Arsenal of course have one of the more insufferable fanbases when it comes to social media. They have Arsenal Fan TV and Piers Morgan, who spent years campaigning against Arsène Wenger before turning his guns on Unai Emery and then Mikel Arteta, but he’s now declared that he’s happy with the way things are going, so that’s alright then. The rank and file Arsenal fans on social media have been making lots of noise this week about the amount of them who have tickets in the home end so it’ll be interesting to see if there are any incidents in the crowd today especially given the clubs heavy-handed stance at closing block one and therefore blaming home fans for any unrest in the ground.

Team news and it looks like Ralph is going with a back five with what looks like Elyounoussi at right wing back. Lyanco is in the team, I assume as the third centre back but as I sit in the ground half an hour before the game, I’m looking at the crossing drill that we do now and the two full backs who are putting crosses in are Perraud and Lyanco which maybe suggests we are going four at the back to start with with the lunatic at right back. One thing that is definite is that Che Adams is not in the team and is apparently only fit for the bench after having tight hamstrings after the Bournemouth game. As a result it looks like Joe Aribo is going to be pushed up front with Stuart Armstrong coming into the team. AMN’s place in midfield has predictably been taken by Ibrahima Diallo, who has another chance to prove that he’s not just the player you bring on to help close the game down with 10 minutes to go. There are places on the bench for youngsters Jake Finnegan and Lewis Payne.  Arsenal are at full strength aside from there is no Zinchenko at left back where they have put Tomiyasu who I thought was right footed. Seems a bit odd given that Kieran Tierney is on the bench

Well the game didn’t start well with Perraud clearly thinking that Saka was right footed and he showed him on his left and he whipped over a cross which was narrowly in front of Gabriel running in.

Saints first effort comes from an unlikely source as the ball gets played out wide by Stuart Armstrong to Lyanco at right back and he just keeps on going and gets to about 35 yards out and with images of Carlos Alberto Brazil 1970 World Cup Final in his mind, smashes the ball in with his right foot …. which is gathered easily enough by Ramsdale.

In general play, Saints are not getting anywhere near Arsenal, who are just playing the way through midfield and Gabriel Jesus is about to pull the trigger before Salisu dives in but the ball bounces out to Xhaka who from a narrow angle, tries to drill a hole through Bazunu but Baz stands strong and blocks it away with his knees

We don’t appear to be waking up to the problem however and Arsenal continue pissing through us. Ødegaard side foots narrowly wide from the edge of the box.. Basically, if we don’t start getting close to them in midfield and push higher at the pitch, we are going to get completely smashed.

With 10 minutes gone, Ben White has the ball in the right hand side and plays it into Saka who back heels it via a deflection back to White and his cross is dispatched easily by Granit Xhaka. Not really a surprise and it has certainly been coming. Good goal but Stuart Armstrong has totally failed to go with White as he burst forward and no one has picked up Xhaka on the edge of our box

The game is nearly dead on its arse straight away afterwards as JWP gives away cheap ball in midfield and Ødegaard puts Gabriel Jesus in behind Caleta-Car and he fortunately hits the side netting.

Lyanco is clearly had enough of this passive shit and goes up for a header with Martinelli and his eyes must have lit up as he headed the ball and smashed into the Arsenal player as well. A few minutes of treatment for the Arsenal man and then Lyanco goes one better and does the wrong postcode trick, arriving in SO14 with ball is already in SO15. Granit Xhaka is the player in the way.

The chances keep coming for Arsenal as an unlucky deflection between Caleta-Car and Diallo sees the ball sit up for Jesus to smash it goalwards but Baz makes a decent block and we breathe again. Ben White, having seen Saka get booked for a dive earlier, decides to dive as well and it’s even more blatant but the referee ignores this one.

We have made it to half-time just the one goal down. The last 15 minutes or so have been better but it’s all about the next goal. If Arsenal get it then we are completely screwed. If we have our usual lacklustre opening 15 of the second half, then we are also screwed.  Away we go and we seem to have switched full time now to a back three with Elyounoussi pressed into service as a right wing back.

We are also pressing higher and force Arsenal into a mistake as Saliba passes it straight to Adam Armstrong who just has Gabriel inbetween himself and Ramsdale.  He then picks an unfortunate time to be possessed by the ghost of Shane Long and the worst touch ever absolutely fucks it up.

The tide seems to have turned a bit though as Stuart Armstrong gets in a cross from the left and Elyounoussi arrives at exactly the right time in the middle but plays in airshot and Arsenal get it clear.  Elyounoussi shows the better side of his game when Diallo coughs up possession in midfield and Ødegaard puts Gabriel Jesus right through but the makeshift right wing-back appears from nowhere and makes one of those tackles that prevent a certain goal.

Fucking Hell Lads - We Kept It On The Ground!

Bearing in mind that we have been a long ball team for a while now, what happens next is beautiful. Salisu gets the ball from Bazunu in the left back area and passes it in to the feet of Aribo on the halfway line he steps over it and Perroud gets clear. A ball out to Elyounoussi on the right hand side he runs at Tomiyasu before slipping a ball in for Stuart Armstrong to score. Brilliant goal.  Arsenal keyboard warriors crying.

There is no immediate reaction from the league leaders and Saints are definitely having more of the game now in a decent build up at the right through Elyounoussi and Edozie eventually sees JWP swing over across which ends up with Perraud who tries a volley which unfortunately, for his ‘goal of the season’ ambitions, goes quite comfortably wide. The point is that we look as much like scoring now as they do.

Theo Walcott is on - this is not a drill.... and he dives and gets booked.

Saints win a succession of corner and JWP whips them all in to be cleared away.  One of them goes back to him however and his back-heel puts Stuart Armstrong in on the left and his pull back finds Aribo who kind of has to fetch it from behind him but still gets the shot away and straight at Ramsdale.
 
Arsenal are still a dangerous of course from their admittedly less frequent attacks.  Tierney gets down the left-hand side but the ball is clearly out as he hooks it back into the middle for Odegaard to score.  When I say ‘clearly out’. I can’t see that from at the other end so just assumed that we are conceded.  It’s an almighty relief when I see it’s been chalked off.

The one remaining piece of entertainment is Nketiah testing Lyanco’s patience with a bit of pushing and getting three times back in return.  Yellow card for the Lyanco.  When the ref asked for his name he replied ‘Lyanco Evangelista Silveira Neves Lunatic Brazilian Serb Overhead-Kicking Fuckin Have It Mad Bastard Vojnovic’

Full time and what a decent result that is. With that, we become only the second team this season to not get beaten by this new improved Arsenal side. The second half performance in particular was absolutely excellent from us when we stopped giving them as much respect as we did in the first half.

The opening 20 minutes was as passive and as shit as it can possibly get, as we stood off and just allowed Arsenal to play through us at will, which of course they did about three times before they actually scored. Maybe the turning point was Lyanco steaming through the back of Martinelli to win that header. It’s certainly put Martinelli off for the rest of the game. Saka’s dive also came just after that and that seemed to put him off for the rest of the game as well.

The goal we scored was absolutely superb, starting with the keeper, all along the ground and ending with Elyounoussi finally releasing the pass at the right moment for Stuart Armstrong to score. Stuart Armstrong’s diagonal run to meet Elyounoussi’s pass is a classic example of what we do not do very often. In the first half all of our movement ahead of the ball was just in straight lines, people coming short and that is so easy to play against and you’re not making defenders think.  By moving across the pitch left and right, you are making defenders either make a decision to track you or communicate with the other defenders to pass players over to them. It makes defenders work so much harder if the forwards move across the pitch.

Caleta-Car was again rock solid at the back and apart from a couple of ropey passes in the first half, Salisu had another good game. Roman Perraud is getting better every game at the moment and now looks fit enough to play 90 minutes which he hasn’t always done before. There were still problems in midfield, especially in the first half with Diallo and JWP just being present and not actually doing anything to influence the game.  They got it sorted in the second half a bit with Diallo becoming much more dynamic and allowing JWP to get involved further up the pitch.

Adam Armstrong was Adam Armstrong in that he worked very hard upfront with no prospect of a goal. The one time he had the last defender one-on-one he fell over the ball and that kind of sums it up. That opportunity came because we put pressure on the Arsenal central defenders who coughed up possession. Who knew but putting teams under pressure rather than letting them just do what they want as a good thing?  I thought Joe Aribo did okay as a makeshift striker in the absence of Che Adams. His control in tight areas is ridiculous at times but he doesn’t have the pace to play that role with any regularity. Stuart Armstrong scored a great goal but the weaker side of his game was highlighted in the Arsenal goal as Ben White joined in the attack and Perraud was left with both White and Saka to deal with as Stu had nodded off.

Jesus - Where Did He Come From?

As regular readers will know I am not a fan of Elyounoussi because of his slowness at realising situations and releasing a ball. Well today, he got it absolutely spot-on for the goal we scored. I’ve never doubt it is defensive work for the team and the tackle he made on Gabriel Jesus running back towards his own goal won us the point as much as the equaliser did.

Lyanco Evangelista Silveira Neves Lunatic Brazilian Serb Overhead-Kicking Fuckin Have It Mad Bastard Vojnovic

We have to talk about Lyanco though.  It's his planet and the rest of us just live on it.

The guy is an absolute fucking nutcase and there are definite liability tendencies, however, he changed the game when he steamed through Martinelli man and ball, who didn’t wanna know after that. He also sent Xhaka running for the hills as well when he clattered into him. It was an absolute beast of a performance in a good way. He changes the perception of the team – the opposition won’t think it’s a men against boys challenged when Lyanco is out there.  It’s a cliché that people of my age (50+) tend to come out with – “there are no characters these days”.  Lyanco proves that you need them.  If he hadn’t have played today, we’d have lost and the atmosphere in the second half would have been flat.  He brought everyone else, players and fans with him.  Saints have been too 'nice' for a while now... not today.  We need players that opposition fans hate and Arsenal fans on social media since the game have certainly proved that point.

Ralph got it pretty much spot on today given the cards he was dealt with the injuries and having to rest Che Adams. We went from a flat back four with Lyanco it right back to 3 at the back with Elyounoussi at right wing back and it seemed to change fairly regularly in the first half.  The second half was the best we have looked with a three at the back formation. The substitutions were all done at the right time and it’s been a very good week for Ralph overall with five points from three games.

Crystal Palace away is next up and it’s a real good chance to put behind us the poor results that we had against other middling teams in the recent past, combined with the poor limp performances that we put in against Wolves, Villa and Everton.  This cannot be repeated next Saturday with a trip to Selhurst Park to face Wilfried Zaha and his tantrums. Lyanco versus Zaha has the potential to be the stuff of legend so unlike Martinelli, we know that Zaha won’t shrink from the challenge. Looking forward to it.

Bring it on and up the fucking Saints.

Premier League Match 11 - Bournemouth 0 Southampton 1

 

Lift-Off?

Tonight will hopefully be a night where two runs will end. Hopefully, Bournemouth’s run of six undefeated will go and our run or five games without a win will also go. If not and we failed to win today, we will be looking at our remaining fixtures up to the World Cup and wondering where our next point is gonna come from and if Bournemouth win, they will feel they are well on the way towards their target for the season of staying up.

Bournemouth have a new American owner waiting in the wings, which is good for them I guess but I do wonder if he will spend any more money than the mysterious (as in ‘no information on the internet’) current owner Max Demin has done over the last few years. Russian owners who don’t appear to have a internet history are of course, nothing to be even vaguely suspicious about. American owners are at least less mysterious, but we do have to be slightly wary of the day when there are 14 clubs with American owners because we will have franchise, all-Star games, four quarters and no relegation before you fucking know it. 14 is of course the number needed to vote anything through at the moment.

Bournemouth of course have something in common with us and that they have been beaten 9-0 but as of yet, they have only done it once – amateurs!. Since the 9-0 defeat they got at Liverpool earlier on in the season, they sacked their manager Scott Parker (who was by all accounts, a bit of a dick) and appointed Gary O’Neil as a caretaker.  Gary O’Neil is of course an ex-Skate and a bit of a legend in those parts, mainly because he bettered himself and got out.  Putting all that aside for a second, he speaks quite well and seems like a decent guy and whatever he has done, he has got what looks like a fairly average collection of players to play well enough as a team to go six games unbeaten. Granted, it has been a favourable fixture list with only Newcastle from the top half being played in that time.   It is of course, results against the teams in the bottom half that define how your season is going to go for clubs like Bournemouth and Saints and that is where they have been doing considerably better than us over the past few weeks with our crap defeats against Wolves, Villa and Everton.

They will of course see this home game against Saints as another game against one of the weaker sides of the division and will fancy their chances of another three points at the Vitality Shed.  Their run does however, include only two wins and they were both ‘come from behind’ victories against Forest and Leicester where the opposition both felt that they should’ve won so maybe Bournemouth aren’t as impressive as the current narrative tries to paint them as.

I am honestly of the opinion now that Ralph has to go if we don’t win today. This has nothing to do with the locality of the team that we are playing today but to do with the fact that it will be yet another game against a team who are going to be near the relegation places at the end of the year. I guess we a lot will depend on whether Bournemouth can deal with our array of attacking options which are basically, smash it up the park to Che Adams and hope to pick up the pieces.  It’s actually quite sad that we’ve gone from this side that played in an enterprising aggressive way that sometimes got results and sometimes didn’t, to a team that plays ‘dull as fuck’ football and wins 3 games out of the last 22.

When I said earlier on the Bournemouth have an average collection of players, that is based on them still having a lot of players who were with them and they got relegated from the Premier League such as Adam Smith, Dominic Solanke, Phillip Billing, Lewis Cook, Chris Mepham and Jefferson Lerma. We should not be going into this game with any sort of inferiority complex and should be looking to impose ourselves on Bournemouth like we have on our last visits here when we comfortably won both games, 3-0 in the cup and 2-0 in the game that all but confirmed Bournemouth’s relegation. We cannot go into this game and play stodgy, boring shit football and allow them to dictate. If you’re going down Ralph, please go down swinging.

Ralph’s team selection will tell us a lot about how he approaches this game. Seeing as how we played quite well in the first half against West Ham, I can see him going with exactly the same starting lineup as close as he can. ABK is not going to be available today as we are still waiting to see whether he’s dislocated shoulder, which popped back in, is going to need surgery or not. Rumour has it that Theo Walcott was in line for a start on Sunday but a late illness, probably caused by the prospect of actually having to earn his money, caused him to miss out. I expect he will be back on the bench today.

Spot on – Duje Caleta-Car comes in for ABK but other than that we are unchanged.  The Bournemouth line up has a few new players but no headliners.  Tavernier signed from Middlesbrough, Senesi at centre back, Ryan Fredericks from West Ham reserves at right back.  Fuck me, Adam Smith is captain!

“And we’re live on Amazon Prime – Is it a Derby?  I think it is.  Is it a Derby? – It’s only 30 miles away so it is”

No it isn’t – fuck off!.

The first real action of the game sees Bournemouth break from midfield with Solanke finding Billing out on the left. He attempts a crossfield ping, which Perraud can only head in to the midfield and Solanke picks up again before screwing well wide. One nil to me because I think Solanke is shit.

8 minutes gone and Maitland-Niles advances in midfield and plays good progressive ball forward to send Elyounoussi running into the Bournemouth half.   The move nearly dies on its arse as he tries to slide the ball to Adams but even though it’s a shit ball, Che fights off Senesi and gives it back to Elyounoussi, who now sets off diagonally across towards the left-hand side. He holds onto it before knocking out to Perraud, who fires in a first time cross which is met superbly by Adams and guided is the far side of the net with his head. Brilliant header, great movement, superb cross. One fucking nil. Have it!

God Listens Out for the Bournemouth Fans

Bournemouth‘s first attempted response is down our right and Perraud picks up a yellow card for pulling back Tavernier. The free-kick is shit and is headed away but Bournemouth get it back in there and it eventually falls to Billing, who shows good technique for such an ungainly looking bloke, to volley goalwards with Bazunu tipping over the bar. It’s offside anyway.  Billing is a very strange player and just looks very awkward, standing as he does it about 6 foot 6.

After the KWP throw-in controversy against West Ham at the weekend, it’s nice to see him again do something decent from throw, when he uses his legendary throwing technique to get the ball back from Caleta-Car, skin a couple of Bournemouth defenders and head along the by-line. He fires across along the ground at the near post and Aribo gets across the defender and gets a toe on it but can only divert it at Neto, instead of in the netto. (Shit gag – apologies)

Straight up the other end of the pitch and Baz produces a shite kick into the midfield and Billing picked the ball up and hammers goalwards from about 20 yards but it straight at Baz, who redeems himself and pushes away for a corner.

As we approach halftime there are some handbags as Bournemouth get the arse with us standing up to them and AMN is about two yards off the pitch when Mepham’s sliding tackle takes out the back of his calf with the ball nowhere near. They both get booked for the handbags and I find it absolutely amazing that there appears to be no VAR check for that challenge.

As we approach half-time, the ball is played up to Che and he spins round Adam Smith who just pulls him down in the same way that Perraud hauled down Tavernier earlier but this time, the referee decides it’s not a booking. Smith then confirms that he must be related to the referee in some way, by diving over a challenge and then handling the ball deliberately as Saints try and play on. Somehow the referee thinks this is Smith‘s freekick. Absolute fucking bullshit.

Anyway, half-time and 1-0 and to be honest, Bournemouth don’t really look like they’ve got anything.  What they have got in their favour is our ‘one half mentality’ like we showed against West Ham last week.  We’ve played decent football in the first half and though there have been a few errors in midfield – I’ll take that if it means we’re not solely banging the ball forward.

Having I’m sure been hammered with ‘keeping it tight’ messages at half time, the second half starts with a ball with corner from the left and Saints do their best to let in a goal at the start of the second half yet again, by leaving Senesi completely unmarked but he heads it well wide.

There is Bournemouth pressure for the next 15 minutes, without any efforts on goal and Ralph decides that it’s time to go five at the back with Lyanco coming in for Joe Aribo. Aribo‘s has been decent and this is a clear indication that we are just gonna sit deep and challenge Bournemouth to break us down. The first effort is from Solanke, as he makes a decent run to pick up the ball in the right-hand channel before turning out and lashing hopelessly over the bar with his left foot.  Two nil to me – he’s shit.

Any Saints attempt to get forward is now coming from deep, usually through the bullying of a centre back by Che Adams or by Adam Armstrong running with the ball in the left-hand channel. After one such run, Arma gets his head up and finds JWP at the top of the D but to be honest, it’s a bit of a hospital pass and JWP throws his swinger of a left foot at it and drags it wide.

KWP looked like he was injured earlier on then goes down with what looks like a hamstring injury and has to be replaced and surprisingly, it’s Stuart Armstrong who comes on with Elyounoussi going to right wing-back.  The change is a good one though because all of a sudden, we are keeping the ball better.  We’d lost a bit of that when Aribo went off but Stu Armstrong is having a good impact, again proving that it’s good to have a least one player in midfield who is decent on the ball.  Stu proves the point and then threads a lovely ball inside the full back for Perraud to put in another low first time cross, which this time met by Adams put the shot balloons up off of Smith and drops to Elyounoussi on the angle - who puts up a fucking balloon which skews away into Row Z – actually it’s a about Row G here..

Five minutes to go it’s time for three more changes with Larios, Diallo and Djenepo coming on for the clearly knackered Perraud, AMN and Adam Armstrong. Diallo starts particularly well and now we are keeping the ball really well.  This is game management people, and we’ll be breaking out the “Ole’s” in minute as we’re hardly giving Bournemouth a touch.   They seem to have given up to be honest and so do most of their fans and there are quite a few streaming for the exits.

Stoppage time and Bournemouth win a corner as substitute Stanislas tries to cross it but ends up skewing it and Baz has to shove it over the bar.  In it comes from Tavernier and Baz drops it but luckily, the imperious Salisu is on hand to belt it away.

95 gone and another chance for us as everyone miss a throw-in and Djenepo is clean through from the right wing on the angle but instead of getting his head up and squaring it across to the unmarked Adams, which is what a normal player would have done, he decides to have a shot and it’s absolute wank and dribbles through to the goalkeeper.  No matter though and the referee puts Bournemouth out of their misery. Excellent stuff.

Well, the first thing to say is that the players put a shift in for the manager who will now no doubt continue on and fair play. The tactics were spot-on today – we played decent football in the first half and took some risks with our passing out of defence. Sure, we got the ball away a couple of times but we imposed yourself on Bournemouth when we had the ball and got the goal.  We managed the first 15 minutes of the second half without too many alarms and then shut up shop for the last half an hour by changing to go back three with the introduction of the mad bastard Lyanco. Further substitutions arrived at exactly the right time with Diallo and Stuart Armstrong in particular not putting a foot wrong when they came on and we ran down the last 15 or so minutes really well.

Clean Sheet Bonus Ahoy!

Everyone stood up today. Brilliant for Gavin Bazunu to get his first clean sheet and he deserve that bit of luck when he fumbled that cross in the 90th minute because he had another excellent game. In front of him, Mohammed Salisu was absolutely immense in the absence of ABK and they were solid performances in the full-back positions by KWP and Perraud, who put over an absolutely fantastic cross for the goal.  Duje Caleta-Car is an interesting player and I see quite a lot of potential in the guy. He seems to be a very solid central defender who keeps things very simple and does the basics very well. He doesn’t seem to attack the ball particularly well in a crowd (defending corners etc) and had an element of Jack Stephens about him in that regard but hopefully he will become more aggressive in his defending the more he plays in the Premier League.  If we were ever to play three at the back then he would be absolutely ideal as the central defender, maybe sitting back a bit and letting the others to attack the ball.  We might see that against Arsenal with Lyanco and Salisu in there with him. Lyanco - fucking hell. If he’s not charging up the wing and being ahead of the ball when we lose it and he’s been brought on specifically to shore it up at the back, then he’s pulling out a drag back in a congested midfield and striding away with the ball. Absolutely magnificent mad bastard.  Cult hero stuff of the highest order.

Mad Bastard Applauds Crowd

In midfield, AMN and JWP were solid, continually picking up loose balls and both using the ball well and looking to pass forward, particularly in the first half. Joe Aribo had an excellent first half before being sacrificed to bring Lyanco on and Elyounoussi and Adam Armstrong did their usual and worked incredibly hard but did show their limitations in possession.

Then we have Che Adams who was an absolute God amongst men.   Playing up front on your own and battling with the centre backs for every single ball is fucking hard work but he did it for the full 95 minutes, got the goal is deserved and if Moussa Djenepo had a brain in his head instead of cheese, he would’ve got an nice tap-in in the last minute to seal the victory.

Bournemouth weren’t very good as I suspected they wouldn’t be.  Because of those two wins, which were both snatched from the jaws of defeat, I was expecting some big, spirited attempt to get back into the game in the last 20 minutes but it didn’t really happen. It didn’t really happen because we defended properly and they didn’t really have a clue.  I know this is a slight irrational hatred on my part but any team that gives Adam Smith minutes in the Premier League deserves all they get to be honest. Absolute whining shithouse in addition to being absolutely crap. Can’t stand defenders that dive, whilst trying to give out that he’s some sort of hard man.  Special mention to the referee today as well who in the first half was quite stunning in his ineptitude and inconsistency.

The final word for the Amazon Prime TV coverage which was largely excellent, hosted by Kelly Somers who I thought was really good, apart from her insistence on saying it was a derby every couple of minutes. It isn’t a derby and it never will be, no matter how many times you say it.   See the ‘cauldron of nothing’ atmosphere generated by the Cherries massive. For fuck‘s sake, there’s more atmosphere on Mars.

So, full marks to Ralph and full marks to the team because today was all about the result.  For the home game against Arsenal on Sunday we will undoubtedly be a little bit makeshift with KWP picking up any injury today and AMN being ineligible to play.  I assume that it will be either Juan Larios or Moussa Djenepo at right wing back if it’s a back three. I would imagine that Lewis Payne will come into the equation on the bench.

Today’s win has kept the wolves from the door for a little bit and we can go into Sundays’ going with slightly less pressure than would otherwise have been the case. Bring it on.

Premier League Match 10 - Southampton 1 West Ham 1

 

Romain's Expert Use of the Referee puts us in Front.

Sunday afternoon and the visit of West Ham United to set Mary’s and a relatively decent opportunity for us to break our run of four successive defeats. We are here on a Sunday because David Moyes’ happy Hammers are playing in the Europa Conference League on Thursdays, so they get the extra day to recover. The fact that they are in the Europa Conference tells you that they are one of the better sides outside the Super League 6 but it also tells you that most of the big players have played only three days before.

We need all the advantages that we can get. West Ham didn’t start the season particularly brilliantly and initially struggled for a goal, never mind a point (sounds familiar) but now they appear to be up and running and have steadily climbed the table once they got going. They are not one of only three sides below us in the table - put it that way.

Over the past two seasons, West Ham have been a bit of a struggle for us with Michail Antonio usually running riot and us getting generally bullied off the pitch. Last year however, we got it sorted and after a spirited 0-0 draw at St Mary’s, we won at the Dildo Bowl which was one of our best performances of the season and we also won in the FA Cup at St Mary’s when we put out what the time amounted to a reserve team. A major player in both of those victories was Armando Broja who we have course, no longer have and haven’t really replaced. There were plenty of stories linking West Ham with Broja during the summer, which of course never happened and he stayed at Chelsea. West Ham of course consoled themselves with signing Gianluca Scamacca and the Italian is in a good run a form. They also added Lucas Paqueta to their attacking midfield options which were already decent, with Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals, Lanzini etc.  I’m never too sure about Soucek in midfield but of course they have Declan Rice who more than makes up for Soucek’s occasional moments when he doesn’t even look like a footballer.  At the back they will be boosted by not having signed Jan Bednarek, who they were rumoured to be interested in.

David Moyes isn’t everyone’s cup of tea as a manager but he is solid and consistent and knows what he wants his teams to do. He seems to deal with the issues with Gold, Sullivan and Brady pretty well as well.

Yes, Ralph is still here and you wonder what he’s going to throw at the wall in the hope of it working for today’s game. 4-2-2-2? 4-2-3-1? Pressing? Sit in deep? Five at the back? Could be anything. Will he find the correct combination in midfield and will we have some sort of potency to our attacking play? With all this randomness going on, we could do with things being quiet off the pitch but of course we managed to make the news again this week.

Shields: Off You Fuck

In the summer, Saints made what seemed like a good appointment when Joe Shields joined from Manchester City as Head of Recruitment. In his first transfer window he of course was instrumental in varying degrees in bringing in Gavin Bazunu, Romeo Lavia, Samuel Edozie and Juan Larios from his former club and also His prints were all over the Joe Aribo signing. Though it appears he had no involvement with the signing of Armel Bella-Kotchap for example, the signs were good this was going to be a fruitful partnership. That was until this week when it was leaked to the media that he had been approached by Chelsea and that he wanted to leave.

If, as seems very likely, Shields leaked the information then it’s very significant. As this was leaked this before the club knew about it, it stands to reason that this is his way of operating which is probably why the world knew about us signing the Manchester City lads before they were announced. There was a reason that relatively unknown players were all over Fabrizio Romano‘s radar and it just might be because our Head of Recruitment was leaking so much, he needed a fucking nappy. It was Romano himself who broke the latest leak about Chelsea. Maybe it was Chelsea who leaked it. Unlikely because they wouldn’t want to antagonise Saints or Shields but Todd Boehly has already shown himself to be a bull in a China shop and he seems the sort of guy who thinks he can just do whatever he wants.

Also significant is when you consider the crass, verbal, £50 million bid from Chelsea for Romeo Lavia, which happened when we played them. I’m putting two and two together here and wondering exactly how long our Head of Recruitment has not really been acting in Southampton‘s best interests. Of course, it all comes down to money and I have no problem with people leaving their job for better money but it is something else when it clearly looks like he has not even been putting Southampton first whilst he’s been our employee. Off you fuck, you scumbag.

Anyway, after what will no doubt be a hefty period of gardening leave, he will be on his way to Chelsea where I wish him massive failure. Whilst he was here he could say to the young players that there was an actual pathway through to the first team whereas at Chelsea, he’ll be pitching “Come to Cobham and then get loaned out to the Dutch second division, then maybe a Championship club and then if you’re lucky, play five minutes here in there in the Carabao Cup for Chelsea”. He will have to prove himself outside of his Manchester City network because City will be much more reluctant to sell to Chelsea than they would be to Southampton.

Criticism of Saints for this from anyone, is merely jumping on the bandwagon caused by poor results over the last six months and the general feel-shit factor that’s manifested as a result. The way football works, this would’ve happened even if we won our opening nine games of the season. The way I see it is that the only way anything can be levelled at the club is that we employed someone of very questionable professionalism and character. The signs were actually there right from the start with his almost childlike comments on his Instagram account. How many people in his position would put “Hope I don’t get sacked soon LOLZ” in the public domain.

As anyone old enough to remember will tell you, this has parallels with when Paul Mitchell left Saints and joined Spurs, taking with him knowledge of every detail in Toby Alderweireld’s loan agreement and option to buy between Saints and Atletico Madrid. Unsurprisingly, we got shafted at the end of the loan deal and he joined Spurs. The career path of Romeo Lavia will therefore be quite interesting from here on in and even though Shields will be on gardening leave in January, expect more leaks and not just from Shields garden hose.

Tinpot

Also worth a mention this week is the Hampshire Senior Cup game where we travelled down to Fratton Park to play the Skates. As befits the Hampshire Senior Cup, we sent a cross between the B team and the Under 18s, managed by Dave Horseman and Pompey put out a team with 10 players who have played League 1 football this season and not only that, Danny Cowley, the first team manager, ran the side.

The one experienced player that we had, Olly Lancashire then got himself sent off at the start the second half and a minute after that we were unsurprisingly 4–0 down. It would of course been a bit grim if we lost by seven or eight but the 10 boys rallied well and courtesy of a couple of goals by Jimmy Jay Morgan, pulled it back to 4-2 with a certain nervousness spreading around the ground as we outplayed them and very nearly scored a third. There was also a bit of a men versus boys ruck on the pitch which kind of points to them being slightly rattled.

Sadly, we couldn’t pull it back and the Skates scored a fifth in the last minute. The Skates might have won the game and they will no doubt have the glory of winning the Hampshire Senior Cup having achieved this giant killing but I would say that Saints got a lot more out of it and the fact that we are played them off the park for much of the second half with 10 players, it’s probably a little bit embarrassing for them.  If they manage to win this priority trophy this year, they'll move level with Andover's 6 wins and then have Ryde and Aldershot's 7 wins in their sights.

To be fair, I didn’t see too many Pompey fans giving it the big one on social media but I also think there is absolutely no doubt that Danny Cowley wanted to make absolutely sure that they didn’t lose this game and after what happened when we last played them in a truly competitive game.

Back to today and there were a few hints during the week that it was going to be an altered line-up with Ralph himself saying that from a practice game that they had behind closed doors that identified a couple of different players you could come and make a difference. That was clearly bullshit because the starting lineup looked very familiar. Maitland Niles won the midfield tombola to play next to JWP and the one notable change was that Elyounoussi was back in in place of Stuart Armstrong. Other than that it was more or less as you were.

I anticipated a 4-2-2-2 formation but as the game started it became apparent that it was kind of 4-3-3 in possession and 4-1-4-1 out of possession, with Maitland-Niles being the deepest lying midfielder and Aribo and Adam Armstrong in the wide positions.

We had a go at letting a goal in straight away with Aribo getting caught on the ball on the right hand side and the ball found its way to Emerson and a swing of the left boot saw it go past the post by a couple of feet. Our attacking game plan was simple and easy to spot and it was get the ball out to Adams and let him battle for it against the makeshift West Ham central defenders and the first time he did that he barged past Kehrer and knocked him over but from an angle on the right hand side saw his shot hit the foot of Fabiański and cleared away.

West Ham fans always been a vocal bunch and they decided to scream every time KWP took a throw on the right hand side. Granted his throws do look a little bit suspect at times but as far as I know he has never been pinged for a foul throw.  It is amusing however when he takes the next throw and all the West Ham fans go up giving it the big one.  Adams hooks it infield, Soucek has a big donkey swipe at it and plays a virtual airshot and the ball goes in to the centre of the pitch where Perraud nicked it off Bowen and smashes in a shot which deflects and skids away into the bottom corner of the net. Fucking get in. West Ham are all around referee appealing for what I assume is a foul throw which is laughable cause they’re really not gonna get that. Turns out that they were actually appealing for the referee getting in the way which is not in the rulebook, so shut up and get on with it.

Chances are exchanged again soon after as the very dangerous looking Scamacca side foots inches wide of the far post and then Adams gets teed up cleverly by Adam Armstrong on the edge of the penalty area and hammers in a low left footed shot to Fabiański’s left, but one of the better keepers in the Premier League gets down well to put it wide of the post.

Oh Shit

There’s a blow about 10 minutes last time is Scamacca half gets passed ABK, who goes sliding in to try and stop him but stays on the deck. Scamacca plays on as he is perfectly entitled to do and crosses it and it’s met by Paqeta who heads down and it flicks of the outside of the post. Thank fuck for that. When the medical staff get on, it is apparent very quickly that he’s not carrying on but he’s helped up by the medics and walked off the pitch with what looks like an arm injury.  At least we have a decent player on the bench with Caleta-Car coming on.

Half-time and a half-time lead. Whatever next? Maybe we won’t fuck it the start the second half like we normally do and actually draw them out as they get more desperate and start throwing players forward. That would be nice.  The alternative is what happened though.

West Ham changed the formation of the start of the second half and are playing with a flat back four and Moyes’ changes have changed the momentum of the game and we suddenly look all over the place.  AMN, who had a very good first half is now looking a little bit tired and we can’t keep the ball. The first West Ham chance sees Paqeta find himself in acres to take down Coufal’s cross and ping it straight at Bazunu for a comfortable size.  Then it’s Scamacca’s turn to meet a cross from Bowen and he manages to improvise and effort with his knee which flies just over the bar. Matter of time

And here we fucking go.  Rice picks up the ball on the left-hand side, plays a 1-2 with Benrahma around JWP and picks the ball up about 25 yards out with no one really closing him down. I have a premonition that this is ending up in the bottom corner before he even shoots and it’s a shame no Saints defender does.   He takes another step and curls easily into the far bottom corner giving Baz absolutely no chance whatsoever. Fuck it. Good goal and not surprised at all.

Now we really gone to shit and the otherwise excellent Salisu gives the ball away in midfield and West Ham work it up to Paqeta on the edge of the box and Caleta-Car blocks the first shot and then KWP throws himself in the way of the follow up.

It looks like Lyanco is ready to come on but he suddenly sits down in a few more minutes goes by and with 15 left we seem to have four substitutes ready to come on. I’m thinking this looks slightly desperate for the manager and it looks on the face of it like it’s all like for like changes. Aribo and Adams, two of our more physical players have gone off and been replaced with the lightweights Edozie and Mara. With the enforced substitution in the first half, we have now changed half of the outfield players and Elyounoussi is still on the pitch. What a time to be alive.

The splurge of changes does seem to have give us a bit more energy and Edozie does manage to get a shot in straight at the keeper. West Ham seem to settle for a point and the three minutes extra is played out without much alarm at either end.

Strange game.

You could argue that we should’ve scored more than one goal in the first half with Che Adams being guilty of missing chances again but then you could argue that the four shots that West Ham had that flashed 6 inches wide of the post could’ve meant an entirely different half-time outcome. The start of the second half was once again absolutely fucking shit and it was just a matter of time before West Ham scored.

There was such an inevitability about Declan Rice scoring once he picked up that return pass. It was almost like I’d shut my eyes and dreamt it - it was that obvious.

With the game slipping away and it seeming like just a matter a timer for West Ham scored a second, came the quadruple substitution. I have two views on this. One is that it was done exactly the right time to wrestle back some of the initiative that had been lost in the second half but it did strike me as a manager who basically didn’t know what to do - so he did everything. Making four like-for-like changes at the same time is on the face of it, fucking mental because all you’re doing is replacing the first choices with the second choices.  There was more energy I guess.

Edozie coming on for Adam Armstrong was fine, as was Diallo coming on for the clearly tiring Maitland-Niles. Taking Che Adams off was absolutely fucking ridiculous because that was all we had as an attacking plan and he was doing really well against the makeshift central defensive pairing of Kehrer and Johnson. Suddenly, we looked ridiculously lightweight and when you look at the fact that Joe Aribo went off as well, I was surprised we didn’t concede from one of the many set pieces that West Ham had.  I think most of us would’ve taken a draw at the start but I can’t help but feel disappointed, having done the hard work and got in front.

That was bad news of course with ABK‘s injury, which has been confirmed as a dislocated shoulder so he could be out for a while and it probably puts his World Cup place under threat. Whilst we have Caleta-Car to step in, he doesn’t look as quick or as dynamic as the injured ABK. At least though, we have a player who is pretty decent to step in in that position and everyone knows how hard it’s been to replace Romeo Lavia.

It didn’t stop Ralph throw Caleta-Car under the bus in the post-match press conference - him and a few other players in what is a sure sign that the manager is feeling the heat. David Moyes in the meantime just moaned about the referee getting in the way for our goal but ironically, he didn’t say anything about the ball hitting the referee just before Declan Rice scored.  If David bothered it check the Laws of the game, he will see if the referee gets in the way and doesn’t touch the ball, the game carries on but if the referee actually gets hit by the ball, the game is supposed to stop.

David Gets the Message That He Doesn't Know the Rules

I’ve seen today described as a stay of execution for the Ralph and that’s probably just about right. He will hang on and should have to win at Bournemouth in our next game but I’m struggling to see how this team beats anybody at the moment.  If our opposition can deal with a long ball up to the centre-forward then we have nothing much else to offer. Defensively we were sound again today but still didn’t keep that elusive clean sheet and apparently, we’re the only team in the league without one now.  Despite their recent run of points against poor opposition, Bournemouth should be there for the taking on Wednesday but they will see us as another bottom half Premier League team they can get points from. Nothing less than a Saints win it’s going to take any pressure off of the manager.