mrfahaji

The idea that we will be able to leave the EU while keeping similar trade terms because "EU countries will lose lose out" seems a fanciful argument to me. If Britain is able to do that, then what would stop other countries going down the same route? If we end up leaving then the affect on our football teams will be the least of our worries.

I think he'd be a good fit for Arsenal, would certainly work on their defensive organisation! As much as I like Koeman, I am hopeful that we could replace him with another capable manager. Sometimes changing the manager can help if they build on and tweak what has gone before rather than dismantling everything. After all, that's what Koeman did with us in the first place.

I'm not sure if anyone was listening to TalkSport last night but Stewart Robson and Darren Lewis were on with Mark Saggers, and they were talking about Neville. Then Robson said he was aware of at least one manager that he knows is putting himself forward to do more punditry in the hope that it would improve their chances of snaring a top job. I was in the other room so didn't hear the full extent of the conversation but from the snippet I heard I thought it could relate to Koeman. I know that it could be complete rubbish but the way it cropped up made it sound more ITK rather than speculating. Did anyone hear it in a more bit depth/detail than me?!

You'd take Shelvey over Drinkwater? I'd like to see the team vs Germany with Drinkwater instead of Henderson. Ideally would make a couple of other changes too (Bertrand for Rose, Barkley or Vardy for Lallana) but wouldn't be too bothered if they weren't implemented.

Pretty sure I paid £38 for a ticket in block 28 vs Sunderland this season. It looks like a season ticket in that block would cost £737, or £38.79 per game...

We should definitely sing something like "Glory glory, we're Southampton" at White Hart Lane if they start singing OWTS.

I'd say 93% was pretty poor actually. The only Premier League teams below us are WBA, Sunderland and Aston Villa, the three clubs probably known for playing the worst football in the league. I suppose you could make a case as to why we are in this spot - the only close comparable is Leicester and it's not exactly a normal season for them (assuming this is data for this year?), but I can certainly see why these figures don't support an expansion. As much as it pains me to say it, 16k and 80% is a pretty good showing in League Two to be honest...

I was at the Sunderland game and couldn't believe how bad the support was. I've often thought that people moaning about the crowd/atmosphere was a bit OTT and it's unrealistic to expect singing and chanting all game, but there was virtually no singing (or anything resembling support) until Van Dijk equalised. When Fonte was sent off, I would have thought it would have spurred the crowd into life - it certainly fired me up - but barely anything. I wonder if there's a growing sense of entitlement, a bit like going to the theatre or something - expect to be entertained, and if you are, you'll give a response. Rather than seeing it as any sort of responsibility to help the team achieve their goals.

It's not so much 'loving Leicester' as 'hating Tottenham' for me. How many people would swap 8th for 9th if it meant Portsmouth wouldn't win the league? That's closer to how it feels for me, although I do also think Leicester winning would be a good story and a poke in the eye for all the big clubs.

For the first time, I also read through the entire match thread and found it entertaining. Not in a "look at these pathetic bedwetters" way though, just funny to see the despair (which is not necessarily overreacting) when you know how it's going to turn out.

Thanks. I don't mind Klopp at the moment but he definitely shows signs that he could become extremely annoying, especially if the media continue their love-in with him. That celebration seemed way over the top though, it's one thing to be relieved and let out a bit of emotion, quite another to be acting like you've just scored the winner in the 94th minute. Still, we had the last laugh. Hopefully Liverpool will bounce back next time out and beat Spurs!

Could you elaborate on these two things please? Didn't get to see the game so missed these bits.

I'd be happy for Spurs to implode in the next few games so I don't have to live with the anxiety, but at the very least let it be us who shatter their hopes once and for all when we got to White Hart Lane on the penultimate weekend.

Yes, and clearly if they are 2-0 down they would take a draw. If it ends up being all square I'm sure they won't see it as the end of the world - they'd probably think "well Southampton are on a good run, it still keeps us ahead" etc, but I very much doubt their fans would take it if you offered it to them now (whereas we probably would, those who aren't rooting for Leicester anyway!) They also have to play West Ham (H), Man Utd (A) & Chelsea (A) - I expect they'll be identifying these as draws ahead of ours.

Especially given that nearly all our wins in the second half of the season have come against teams we failed to beat first time around...

Title chasing and league leading Leicester would be happy to draw at home with Southampton?

Strange that we'll be in April still with the possibility of beating every team in the league in one season. Obviously we won't now I've said that.

Bale, Dennis, Shaw, Bridge... come on guys, surely the obvious choice is... BENALI!

Interesting that they point out the space in the middle of the pitch when Newcastle played Leicester in the first game. I remember thinking the same thing happened in our match at St James' Park, and that was on the opening day!

He does have Troy Deeney playing central midfield though, so clearly hasn't totally regained a brain.

I don't think we're going to agree on this one, are we? I concur that it would be absurd to assume, at the half way point of the season, that all teams are going to beat teams they haven't beaten before and vice-versa, but the problem with the initial model is that it isn't from half way, and actually, that IS what Southampton have been doing so far. When I read the sentence "Unfortunately, it's unlikely that we'll keep it up for many more matches at all. Our next three games are Stoke (A), Liverpool (H) and Leicester (A). We need to win all those games just to keep the sequence running. In fact it's even more bizarre because we haven't won a single game against the nine teams we've only played once", it made it sound, to me at least, that it was intended as a predictor of individual results, and I was just pointing out the flaw in that approach. If the Premier League was more like MarioKart, there would at least be hope of a Blue Shell if and when Tottenham get into the lead...

except I wasn't originally trying to find anything... As the Stoke game is an example of, each time we beat a team that we lost to previously goes against the prediction, but then is used to reinforce it - i.e. Now we can say that after 11 games we have picked up at least 3pts against teams, but the initial hypothesis based on 10 games suggested we wouldn't beat Stoke... As I said above, I can see the idea behind looking at groups of games, but the original post doesn't suggest this thinking and when you drill down into the detail, the individual games work almost completely opposite to the hypothesis (Swansea, I think, is the only game that has been a repeat result).

The evidence for the anti-hypothesis continues!

Blimey, at least wait until the end of this season before you write off the next one

Yes, it will, but I don't think the statistics above look to factor that in at all. If you look in detail as to how they reach the conclusion that the first set of fixtures indicate our performance in the return game, it actually works completely the opposite. I see what Deano6 is getting at above, but it feels like then you're just picking out the bits that are relevant to the argument and ignoring the parts which disprove it. For example, the three most recent 'double fixture' teams are Sunderland, Bournemouth and Chelsea. We picked up 9pts last time, this time 1pt. First time against Watford, West Brom & Man United, we picked up 2pts, second time 9pts. The fact that these two groups offset each other and add up to roughly the same points seems more coincidence than evidence of a trend. The argument would, in my opinion, actually be more convincing if argued the other way around. Maybe I'll start a new thread with my own hypothesis...! (I won't really).