Charlie Wayman

Has it not occurred to people that because JWP comes across as a decent bloke and a generally good sport that refs actually like him and probably more disposed to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps Atkinson on this occasion gave JWP the benefit of any doubts he had about his dangerous and ill-judged tackle. Refs do have some discretion in making in-play judgements after all. Thus a clear and obvious error on Atkinson's part when it should have been a red card immediately.

The lad is still vey raw and naive and was certainly not at his best against Chelsea. Fans expectations of him are too high, too soon. He's a teenager not a seasoned professional with many seasons of experience behind him and the sort of flexibility that comes from that.

Nothing has "happened", it's still there

That's been said for the last two seasons, the guy looks fireproof.

Certainly not one of our best performances; it all looked a little desperate and frantic. We seemed to make a very complicated job out of what other teams seem to find simple and straight forward with the result that we often ended up tying ourselves in knots and losing any sense of purpose. Despite the usual huff and puff we created very little threat of any merit and it was worrying that when our goal did come it was by way of a penalty. Our stand out player today was obviously McCarthy and Redmond could not be faulted for effort. KWP did his best with some nice runs on the left but is not comfortable at LB. Livramento seemed a little overawed by the occasion and was more subdued than usual but Chelseas were sharp and gave us little time on the ball with the result that our close passing game at which we often excel just didn't get going. It was too soon to throw Theo in from the start, he was well off the pace and Armstrong was anonymous, a big worry. I'm not sure where we go from here, its too early to panic but if we don't get a result against Leeds it may be time to start another chapter.

Red all day long

Poor old Stuart, the hype about him on here is now so great that if he doesn't start tomorrow, is not MotM and doesn't score a hat trick he will be crucified by our expert pundits for having failed at the first hurdle! Absence certainly make the heart grow fonder and clouds the mind.

That simply was not true. It was our finishing that let us down. We had at least a half dozen good goal bound shots inside the box on Sunday that were either saved by the goalie or deflected by their players or our own. We seemed to snatch at our chances rather than try to place the ball in to the part of the goal that was the least well defended. Maybe our lads are so desperate to score that instead of taking a few milli-seconds to work out where to place the ball they panic and just blast it first time. Then again this could be the difference between top strikers at the big clubs and run of the mill strikers of other PL clubs.

I doubt WBA & Norwich fans like being yo-yo clubs. Some may call that exciting but I reckon that would do my head in out of shear frustration. A big turn-off if ever there was one. We've done our time in the lower leagues over the years, we used to be proud of being a second division outfit but always longed to be in the first. When we made it in 1966 we hoped it would be forever. It hasn't been quite forever but 44 seasons of the 55 since is a pretty good claim. This is where we belong.

Or, how many have we lost with him in the side? Same dice, many faces.

No! What he said.

The OS seems obsessed at the moment running old match clips of Saints scoring goals by the bucket-load for fun, superb winning performances by our teams and highlighting great goals of the recent past such as Lambert's best ever net busters, Beattie's best brace and so on. Very suspicious timing when the pressure is on, we cannot buy a win, spiders have time during our attacks to spin webs across opposition goal posts and our junior teams show the white flag before they kick-off. The classic political tactic of attempting to deflect fans minds from the reality of the failures of the present? The irony is that none of the current bunch of clowns running the show were part of our successful journey back from obscurity that seems now more than ever to be in jeopardy.

Walcott for Djenepo and I'm with you. 0-2 Chelsea

We can be sure that Ralph will not give up his job voluntarily as witnessed by his press conferences. He loves being part of the "best League in the World" and genuinely enjoys rubbing shoulders with the great and the good managers and challenging them in a battle of wits. If we want him out it's the boot from above and frankly I doubt Semmens has it in him to make that decision.

Yeah but apart from that?

By and large these are his players, the ones he has brought in since he arrived and they were not all freebies!

No excuses, we just do not have a single reliably creative player in the squad. They are all straight line thinkers always doing the obvious straight forward things. Comfortable day out for their defence, all they needed to do was sit back and let us cock it up every time. Playing at a snail's pace with as many backward passes as forward ones is a huge concern at this level. Agree with many on here that JWP is not at the races this season, a shadow of the player we had 18 months ago. Makes you wonder if he has gone stale on Saints and wants away. Hard to see where our next goal is coming from let alone a winning run. The support was fantastic yet we still end up losing, if that doesn't motivate players then what will?

Thanks for the link. Ralph talks a load of Rollocks at times. The u 23's are not getting trashed by Chelsea or Man City but by West Bromich bloody Albion. Surely they have no more access to quality young players than we do. It won't do Ralph, there's something rotten in the state of Academy! This one is on you, action not excuses.

Pathetic

Thanks for posting this. Great watch. Is this the same Southampton that I've known all my life?

Horseman will be on his way soon if this continues. Situation is going from bad to worse. Not good for our future prospects. Gutless performance.

Hear, bloody Hear! Knowing us though and our usual relationship with live TV we will have 80% of the ball and lose 0-1 Obviously a blow having Stephens out (never thought I'd be saying that) but hopefully Bednarek & Salisu can work together and keep our recent defensive form going. Worry is that they are both left sided CBs. Is this the time he pushes Livramento forward and includes KWP at RB? Must be worth a shot surely? Can't see Broja starting after his less than convincing run-out on Tuesday but Tella surely must partner with Armstrong up top. We should not obsess about Traore as long as Oriol & JWP perhaps also with Livramento boss the midfield and stop the supply lines to him. Let him run around like a headless chicken. McCarthy KWP Bednarek Salisu Perraud Romeu Livramento JWP Djenepo Tella Armstrong

Why do we need two of these people to describe a match in front of them? Save money for Beeb if just Blackmore.

Best team in Europe? Pah! Easy Peasy! 3-0 to Saints

Would we take Koeman if he becomes available?