The9

Sound logic, (the kind of stuff I was spouting about us last season when we ended up 8th somehow), though even last night when they scored against Watford to equalise they took 3 shots to score the first goal - the initial one was from outside the box so fairly low xG, but then Sakho missed from 6 yards right in front of goal before scoring the rebound of his own shot. So even that single goal was probably low compared to the combined xG of the three shots. They did then score with their next chance too, which will have improved their differential a bit.

Isn't P3 the neutral section?

Puel's just picked up what Leicester have been doing for 3 years and isn't doing much different, we'll be trying to attack and they'll be countering.

Palace against us is the second biggest difference between xG and actual goals in Prem history - they should have scored 3 and scored none. The "record" was Arsenal v Man U recently, their xG was around 5.

Have we finally got to critical mass? Not crap enough to be worth mocking but not good enough to be interested in what they're doing? There's barely a post on here from week to week now...

Yeah, no we're not. We're in an age where people who choose not to think of anyone but themselves make claims about political correctness as cover for their general ignorance and questionable behaviour.

I'm hugely offended by the incorrect use of "they're"... is that a problem?

I can only speak for the Newport County fans who sing "Sheep-sh*gging b*stards, we know what we are" when I say - they don't. The only thing that offends me about it is how lazy and unimaginative you have to be to sing the original - and tbh I'm long over the retort being entertaining as well.

I don't think being terminally unfunny is actually a crime. Shouting even vaguely homophobic stuff at a Brighton match is absolutely asking to get banned. Also, I think you'll find the problem with "cleansing society" is the bit where people who are different are persecuted, not the people mocking them.

I can't see Les wanting to work with him - though knowing Sullivan and Gold's recruitment policy it's probably Mark Allen from Rangers and he meant "Premiership".

The Ageas Bowl suffers hugely from Southampton's lack of public transport infrastructure, also I live under a mile from the place and it's still a 35 minute walk due to the daft road layout and lack of pedestrian access. The food on site is ok if you want a naan bread or curry, or a burger and chips...

Actually I'd say Brighton's was the best out of centre ground there is - good transport links from Falmer with plenty of long trains and free transport for ticket holders, park and ride alternatives for those who want to drive (and parking at the University nearby for those who really don't like sharing), they've got the sense to leave the bar at the away end open after the game so there's no particular rush to get back to the station. Leicester isn't far from the centre but the traffic is AWFUL for an hour either side and you can't get anywhere, Derby's and Boro's have basically nothing around them. Coventry's used to be the worst but there's now a train station at the Ricoh.

There are only 32 more non Saturday 3pm kick offs in the entire package. 20 of those matches are midweek and shown simultaneously on two different midweek dates, so no change to kick off times and 18 matches you can't watch because you're already at a Saints match. That leaves 12 more games, or under 1 per Premier League team. Really not much to be bothered about - if there's a problem it was the last tv deal which massively ramped up the number of live games, and I don't see many people complaining about the extra £150m the club gets as a result.

Saturday was a strange one for me. About 1pm a Skate goal came up on my Flash Score app. This prompted me to first think they were playing in the FA Cup, then remembered they lost to a team from League Two. Then I wondered why they were kicking off early, then I assumed they'd won a League game and might even be in the playoffs. It wasn't until about 24 hours later that I noticed they were playing in the Checkatrade, which of course they were "boycotting" last season, ie just not very good in... and obviously they're not interested in winning it...

Roll eye emoticon goes here. Tedious.

I've almost certainly got the programme somewhere though as it was before I was born and the clubs haven't met in my lifetime I can't claim to have had to choose who to support... Only Newport's second 3rd Round match in 32 years, they lost a replay in the 2nd Round to Plymouth last year and missed out on Anfield (of course I didn't), and the year before lost to Blackburn. BTW Saints might consider having a look at Tom Lawrence who played for Blackburn that day, his last few Wales performances have been very good in Bale's absence.

Luckily they can't have large crowds because they don't have a large stadium! Obviously my first preference is Saints v Newport, my second is Newport v Saints and my third is any away at somewhere I haven't been yet, so (pending replays etc) Port Vale, Slough, Woking, Rochdale or Fleetwood. I've been to Hereford before but not in 30+ years so that would be OK too. Whoever Saints get they'll be competing with Newport's fixture for my attention. And if I they do get each other I'll be in the away end.

I'd take currently rubbish Schneiderlin with two years of top class Prem performances under his belt over Hojbjerg's one decent game for us in the past 12 months, I think that's a "come back when Hojbjerg's in the side ahead of Romeu and Lemina on a weekly basis" shout. So much being said about a one-off performance against a poor opponent when he should have all the motivation in the world. At the moment I'd think about giving him a shot in a DM pair with Lemina further forward in some away games, but he's got to make himself undroppable first.

We'll have a ton of possession because they'll be happy for us to have it, and we will be fine IF we keep the tempo high and move the ball quickly - Leicester at the moment are still trying to play counter-attacking football but the defence they had in the Prem-winning season has disintegrated. I'll be interested to see if Puel changes anything (he doesn't seem to have yet), and whether he attacks the weaknesses of the Saints system which he'll know inside out because it hasn't changed since Koeman started leaving Targett out.

Hilarious refusal to accept that Pellegrino is as responsible for the win as he is for the draws and defeats on here. Snipey "win despite him" stuff from some people who, once again have already made up their minds. FWIW I thought we were reasonably decent, not quite to last season's free-flowing standards (non-midweek game weeks) but the difference when there's effort all over the pitch, when we play an obvious early ball and when Bertrand bothers to overlap is like night and day. So, that's all the problems solved then, off to 8th... until the players decide not to bother or we come up against a team that's not absolutely garbage of course.

Loving some of the retrospective rubbish being spouted about Schneiderlin here. He was utterly fantastic for us in his last two seasons, one of which was with Wanyama when they only started 19 games together; and the season before that alongside Davis and sometimes Cork. He also only played in one defeat until mid-January in his first season at Man U. Then Saints won there to make it two, and the wheels fell off, with him playing in 6 more defeats that season. That was more down to Man U that Schneiderlin though - they won 58% of games he played in and 40% of those he didn't. Superb player who is being comically misused since he left. Though as he's 28 now we probably wouldn't sign him anyway, plus wages would be too high... he's not good value. As for the "zero tackles" stat, yeah, he just used to stroll around intercepting the ball rather than needing to tackle even with us. Plus we attack down the wings practically all the time. He did get booed on Sunday, but they booed him when he changed direction in possession three times because he had no-one to pass to, and let's not forget he's alongside Idrissa Gueye who already went down with Villa. As for Baningime, how great could he have been in a 5-1 defeat? If nothing else the Skate Unsworth has shown that chucking kids at it doesn't always work even if it's what some fans like.

Sunderland are currently bottom of the Championship. West Brom aren't even in the bottom 3 of the Premier League. When Saints finished 2nd in the Championship (22 places above where Sunderland are) they still failed to win more than 1 of their first 10 matches back in the Premier League. That's how different the standard is.

Thirteen matches, ffs.

I think you'll find that's more to do with Pulis going and them needing to find someone else to write about for their next story than anything anyone has done online.

Nothing. And even if it was, it would be utterly cringeworthy.