Wes Tender

We're not nickpicking; you are, as usual.

This is one of those rare occasions where it is difficult to be critical of any individual player, as the team performance was immense. Equally, there were two or even three candidates for MOTM, the main contenders being Ward-Prowse and Armstrong with commendations for Stephens and Redmond IMO. On paper it was a very bold decision for Hassenhutl leaving our top scorer on the bench for a strike force of our rookie youngster and the misfiring Adams. The tight Christmas schedule made it necessary, but each played a pivotal role in our victory, Obafemi with his pace and the first goal, and Adams with his general hold-up play, passing and movement, and Shane Long type graft. Behind them, a midfield tackling hard, closing down Chelsea's playing space, in their faces at every turn and getting the ball forwards into the channels. And backing them up, an increasingly unified defence, improving their understanding together with each game, confident of the solid goalkeeping of McCarthy at their backs. Previously we had been stronger on the left flank with the Bertrand / Redmond combination, but weaker on the right. Yesterday, we had more equilibrium with Armstrong ahead of Cedric, he providing the defensive cover for Cedric which allowed them to roam forward as a pair. As is often the case, beat a top, expensive glory team like this, and many will highlight the result as a bad day at the office for the glory team, but make no mistake, this was a superb team performance by Saints, who did not allow Chelsea to play to their strengths and would probably give any team in the PL a really hard time, bar perhaps Liverpool. Since that ignominious defeat by Leicester, we have lifted ourselves massively and are showing some real spirit and belief, and melding together as an effective unit. In the current division, there are examples of teams comprising a limited squad who have played together very often and have developed an understanding of each other's strengths and weaknesses. Wolves and Sheffield United are two prominent examples. Is it the case that our run of poor results coincided with the chopping and changing in the team and that our recent success is down to having identified a formation playing to the strengths of the individual players at our disposal and picking a similar team for a succession of matches? The next few matches will give us more of a clue, but we can certainly approach them with the massive confidence boost that we will have from this game.

Obviously in some people's minds, business confidence is better served by having an open ended arrangement whereby there is no firm commitment to a deadline date for agreeing a trade deal with the EU, with the resultant likelihood that the process will go on and on indefinitely. Let's have a transition period of two, even better three years, put off the cliff edge until the end of that period instead and watch business confidence and inward investment soar in the interim.

You keeping repeating your speculations as to what might have happened under various different circumstances doesn't make them any more likely to have happened, Gavyn. What impotent rage? I'm perfectly calm. It appears to me that it is you who are getting a bit hot under the collar. It might be that May, Ollie Robbins' glove puppet, provisionally agreed a deal with the EU, but it wasn't only the DUP who rejected it. Where your argument parts with the facts and enters the realms of fantasy, is when you somehow imagine that the ERG would have swung behind May's deal. Yes, they voted for Johnson's deal, but that was sufficiently rehashed to be palatable to them. Believing that the original deal was acceptable to the ERG and indeed the whole Euro-sceptic wing of the party is where you really have no idea of Conservative Party politics.

I repeat; you really have very little idea of Conservative politics. Nothing you have said indicates anything different, in fact it reinforces it.

It is pie in the sky making assumptions about whether May would have managed to get her WA over the line had she not blown the 2017 GE. She did not have a large majority post Cameron, and the party contained a large percentage of MPs who voted remain in the referendum. May then surrounded herself with them in her cabinet, which was a bad mistake. Losing the election in 2017 was only a part of May's total uselessness. She was a remoaner who proved given time that what she wanted was a soft Brexit in name only. She made the right noises in her Lancaster House speech shortly after she was elected leader, but then had begun to wobble by Florence and went totally towards full surrender by the time she got to her Chequers fiasco. Boris was her likely successor after that, and her Withdrawal Agreement was dead in the water from the time of his and Davis' resignation which reflected the anger and disgust in the Party over her complete incompetence in the negotiations thus far. Your assertion that the ERG would have supported that, or any fudge of it is nonsense. Equally nonsensical is the belief that a stitch up with Labour including remaining in the Customs Union and Single Market was an option. You really have very little idea of Conservative Party politics. Stick to what you know, Gavyn. Anyway, what's the point in raking over old coals with whataboutery? It's all water under the bridge. We've moved on; so should you.

That'll be Boris the next time then.

Please, please, please let the Labour Party choose David Lammy.

Moi? The one who is a member of the party with a thumping majority in the General Election? The more that you talk about far right in connection with the Conservative Party, the more far left you appear, Soggy. Of course the leftie news agencies like to demonise the Conservative Party as having moved to the right. Now all they have to do, and you, is accept that the electorate preferred that to the alternative.

I'm glad that she stayed and she should be given as much media air time as she wants. She's great entertainment value and every time she opens her mouth, she reminds everybody that she and those lefties like her do not respect democracy and thank God that the Marxist didn't get elected. I just love seeing her sour little face, incandescent with rage that the electorate have given a thumping majority to a party and leader that she despises. I don't know which country she would go to to satisfy her particular brand of leftism, where she could enjoy as good a lifestyle and receive such freedom of speech from those prepared to give her views a platform.

He got the exactly same number of votes as Alastair Campbell did when Blair was PM

Yes, just think how much faster and more strongly our trade with the rest of the World will grow once we're actually free of their shackles. That's what worries them to death, a major competitor right on their doorstep.

I've decided to indulge you. Come on then, chapter and verse on why the release is misleading. Are the figures wrong? What are the right ones? If you were in Truss' shoes, what would your press release say? I realise that figures provided by the Treasury under Gideon were not to be trusted, although you were happy to cite them as part of project fear, but they were just forecasts, i.e. guesses. If these figures from the Treasury aren't based on accurate export trade information, give us the correct ones.

Of course, I didn't expect you to consider it good news, Gavyn. No doubt you're in a sulk.

A great team result today, good over most of the park. We looked much more up for it than Villa, closing them down, good movement, McCarthy more often than not clearing the ball up field instead of the tippy-tappy stuff around the back. Superb contribution from Bertrand in combination with Redmond up the left, good energy from Armstrong too. Ings is in devastating form at the moment. His fitness is warding off the niggling little injuries that he used to pick up from lack of match time and his quality in front of goal is shining through. A bit of a nervous period after Grealish scored his unstoppable volley and Villa's heads picked up and they began at last to apply some pressure to our defence. That is when I thought we ought to have put on Adams perhaps for Long and carried on going for it, instead of padding the midfield. Had Villa scored during the last few minutes, it could have been a nervy ending, but they were fairly toothless. It would be nice at some stage to see a lead in a match maintained by keeping the ball by simple passes between our players moving into space and frustrating the opposition into giving away free kicks from rash challenges as the clock runs down.I can't remember when the last time was that we did that. But the table looks much better now, with us breathing down Bournemouth and Brighton's necks, together with another couple of teams well within our grasp if we can maintain some impetus and bring in a couple of fresh faces in the January window.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/five-times-more-demand-for-uk-exports-from-outside-the-eu More good news

And not a dicky bird about the insults bandied about by the likes of Gavyn. The hypocrisy and cant from certain posters on here is breathtaking.

Yep, you and Gavyn sure are bad losers. As if you wouldn't have been rubbing it in big time if your lot had won the election. Hypocrite.

Full insult mood again, Gavyn. Well done. I know I've hit the mark when you go off on one like that. Not only did Labour lose, but you did too, and your little chum Adonis, losers all, lashing out like wounded beasts. What sport you all provide post election, Gavyn.

Again, read what I said please. Which part of it don't you understand?

Read it again. Where did I say anything about proportions of total trade?

Sir Keir Smarmy? You don't get it that failing to deliver Brexit wrecked Labour's chances any more than most of the Labour Party don't get it, and Starmer as Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union had his fingerprints all over the knife that dealt the fatal wound to the Labour Party. Sometimes you crack me up, Gavyn, as does your old mate Adonis

Read what I said. Can you understand the difference Gavyn?

I speak as a Conservative voter espousing the merits of a potential Labour Leader who might give us a better fight leading HM's Opposition, Gavyn. God knows whose views you represent from your London-centric ivory tower but just as a matter of interest, who would you choose?