their new manager, José Mourinho, who you may have heard of. So far, he has had
about 10 games in charge and their win rate has risen significantly than in the
last few months of Mauricio Pochettino’s reign. Jose has been trying different
players and in his usual manner, throwing some under the bus because in Jose’s world,
winning trophies is everything and he has proven very successful in doing that
but he can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs.
The eggs he has tried to break so far include record signing Tanguy Ndombele
and Eric Dier, on whom he did the increasingly popular substituting after 15
minutes thing. It’s interesting that he has taken it out on these two players,
yet he still has Serge Aurier in the team who as everyone knows, got sent off
against Saints in the reverse fixture this season and since then has proven
nothing except what we already know which is that he is a complete liability.
Talking of liabilities, they have Paulo Gazzaniga in goal and though he is
undoubtedly much improved since his days as our reserve keeper, he is still an
accident waiting to happen, as proved last week against Chelsea when he went to
fly hack a ball clear, missed it and trashed the oncoming player. You might say
that accidents happen occasionally but this was a ball that wasn’t even a
backpass and he could’ve just stood there and picked it up. There is no way that Gazzaniga would be in
goal if Spurs had any sort of viable alternative.
past-Champions League Final and Pochettino paid the price in the end though
everything in his manner suggested his heart wasn’t really in it anymore. Spurs seem to be at a bit of a crossroads
because aside from changing managers, they’ve had issues with their stalwart
players not being at their usual level – Alderweireld and Vertonghen are not
what they were, Eriksen doesn’t seem bothered and Kane seems less mobile than
he was a couple of years ago. . On the positive side, Dele Alli appears to
have returned after his year off and started the Mourinho era with a flurry of
goals. Son Heung Min is missing today
after sticking his boot in Toni Rudiger’s chest last week. Though Rudiger undoubtedly made a meal of it,
Son deserved to get sent off and Spurs appeal against this was rightly kicked
out. Add that to deliberately trashing Andre Gomes which resulted in a broken
leg and maybe Son’s not as nice as everyone at Spurs says he is.
It’s always a case of what could’ve been when you see Toby Alderweireld
playing in their defence. I don’t really want to rake over the past too much
but the way he joined Spurs was undoubtedly shitty on their part but no
questions were ever asked in the same way that very few questions were asked
about any of Liverpool‘s transfer dealings with us. That particular episode had
a lot to do with Paul Mitchell who left Saints midway through Toby’s one season
with us and joined Spurs and lo and behold, that’s where Toby went the
following summer. Paul Mitchell is a guy who we have never adequately replaced
on the recruitment side of things, a position which comes into focus in January
in what is known around these parts as the Ross Wilson Guido Carrillo transfer
window.
Judging by the noises coming out of the club, there will undoubtedly be some
activity in the transfer window with full-back being the area most in need of
attention. The ideal would be a full-back who is happy playing on either side
of course. Ralph’s pre-match press conference
this week has led us to believe that Shane Long is fit again so it will be
interesting to see if it is he or Che Adams starting upfront. Che has been linked with a move away on loan
in this window. I can’t help but feel
that this is paper talk and I would imagine that the only way he would leave
would be permanently, which is unlikely in itself.
Spurs come to us today with a flaky away record over the past six months or so,
we have to make sure that we do not play our usual role of kick-starting any
player or any team who is in a bad trot of form. Our team is announced and it has Armstrong on
the right and Djenepo on the left with Nathan Redmond pushed into the attack
behind Danny Ings, King of the Scummers.
Boufal’s table has done its job again and kept the winger off the
substitutes bench. The table now has
better tackling stats than Cedric.
Bertrand whips in a superb cross from the left to pick him out and Cedric has a
free header from about 12 yards but the ball heads him rather than him heading
the ball and it goes harmless wide of the far post as he looks at it.
Kane, with 43 goals in his last 10 games against Southampton, picks up the ball
on the edge of the box and tries to slot it through for Alli but it’s deflected
back to him and he then shoots, seeing the ball hit Bednarek and loop up
towards the top corner to where McCarthy claws it away. A decent save from the
big man.
The next Spurs attack sees the ball gets played up to Dele Alli on the right-hand side of the penalty area. He tries to jink back inside Jack Stephens,
loses the ball and hits the deck in completely pathetic fashion. Even Mike Dean
is not given a penalty for that but the arsehole Alli follows him around for
five minutes with his arms outstretched pleading for a penalty like a complete
pathetic dickhead. The play has gone
right up the other end of the pitch and he’s still at it. Wanker.
Mike Dean should book him of course either for the dive or the dissent
but Mike Dean is of course, also a wanker.
Armstrong turns up on the left and feeds Redmond who gives Alderweireld twisted
blood and eventually finds space for a shot which is blocked in none too
convincing fashion by Gazzaniga and a Spurs boot gets to the ball before
Armstrong can capitalise and we win a corner.
Spurs try and pass the ball forwards out of defence but Stephens steps up and
picks up the ball on the halfway line. A quick look up and over the top of the
Spurs defence to where Danny Ings runs onto it with just Alderweireld for
company. He flicks up à la Gascoigne at Euro 96 and Alderweireld does a Colin
Hendry and goes sliding out of the stadium on his arse which allows Ings to take
his time and smash the ball into the net with his left foot as Gazzaniga
decides not to even put in an effort to try and stop it. Brilliant fucking
goal. 17 minutes and deservedly ahead.
It feels odd not to concede the first goal at home and we have another decent
chance just after that as Armstrong gets away down the right, beating Vertonghen
and picking up Redmond’s run at the near post but his shot hits Alderweireld, who
has paid to get back into the ground after his earlier exit, and it flicks over
the bar.
It all goes a bit quiet in terms of goalmouth incident for a bit aside from
Alli having another dive but we are defending very well and not really giving
them a sniff. There is one chance before
half-time as Kane takes a pot-shot which McCarthy spills to the right but he
just about gets some of the ball as he dives at it and Alli cartwheels over the
top of him. To be fair to Alli, I don’t think he’s actually diving this time
but we have to sit through over the VAR check before we can get to half time in
the knowledge of 45 minutes very well done.
the ball out to Cedric on the right-hand side and he puts in a really good
cross, almost phenomenal, which is met by Redmond about 15 yards and he volleys
it over the bar. Not particularly great
that for a forward.
There is more good play from Saints as we work the ball via Hojbjerg out to
Djenepo and he weaves into the box and lays it off for Bertrand to cross. In it comes and there’s Toby Alderweireld,
waving his hands about his head and the ball hits his forearm and bounces down
allowing Spurs to clear. Clear penalty –
it has to be. No whistle from mike
though. Eventually, play stops and we get
a VAR check but we’ve got the problem that Mike blind bastard Dean didn’t give
the penalty in the first place so VAR is highly unlikely to overrule. Despite
arms not being in and a natural position and having broken the silhouette and
all that shit and the ball clearly hitting his arm, it is no penalty which is
absolutely fucking bollocks. He’s
basically charged it down. Even Dele is appealing. Might as well cancel the handball rule for defenders if that’s not a penalty.
Spurs get a free-kick about 30 yards out when JWP takes one for the team and trips
Lo Celso. Ericksen’s chipped free-kick is knocked in by Harry Kane who is
immediately flagged offside but he’s done a hamstring in the process and has to
go off. An incredibly lengthy VAR check which has everyone believing that the
goal is going to be allowed, eventually proves that Kane was offside and so we
are still 1-0 up.
Almost out of nowhere, Mourinho decides that he’s fed up not being the centre
of attention and wanders over to the seats behind our technical area and gets
himself booked for having an argument with someone who no doubt repeated the
crowd mantra of ‘Fuck Off Mourinho’. It
does prompt a rendition of “You’re Not Special Anymore” and a rousing “You’re
just a shit Pochettino”.
Long is on for Djenepo with Redmond moving to the left-wing and he gives us a
bit of physical presence upfront which we haven’t had up until this point
getting up and flicking a ball over to Redmond on the left he drives at goal
and wins a corner. JWP’s corner for once is not straight at Gazzaniga and Long
meets it at the back post but heads it
narrowly wide. It’s a shame because that
would give us a bit of breathing space but as it is our lot as Southampton
fans, we have to suffer in pain and anguish until the very last bastard second. Eventually, after 6 minutes of the addition 5
signalled, even Mike Dean wants to confirm that we’ve won and blows his
whistle. The ground is rocking and we
deserved that. Oh, when the SAINTS go marching in!!! Brilliant.
What a win that is. Having scored in 17th minute, you could’ve probably got
about 500-1 on Saints keeping a clean sheet and winning that game 1-0. We are
suddenly made of sterner stuff than we used to be just a few months ago when we
would have undoubtedly drawn or lost.
The team worked remarkably hard to keep Spurs at arms-length and I can only
really remember one header that McCarthy saved in the second half. Other than
that, there were a couple of deflections that pinged around but we held out
relatively comfortably and deserved the win. It was a game of relatively few
clear-cut chances and we certainly weren’t great going forward but it matters
little as we got the job done and our first clean sheet at home for what feels
like about three years.
The whole back four were excellent again, in particular, the two central
defenders. Jack Stephens had another excellent game and Jan Bednarek wasn’t far
behind him. Cedric was as good as Cedric is ever going to be and Ryan Bertrand
certainly looks like he’s enjoying his football at the moment. In front of
them, Captain Hojbjerg and JWP were absolutely tireless, stopping Spurs
building up any head of steam through the midfield. Sissoko for Spurs was a bit of a handful today
when he got forward and a couple of times he knocked players out the way with
his powerful running but look at what JWP did to him in the last 10 minutes
when he absolutely trashed him in a 50-50 and left the much bigger and heavier Sissoko
in a heap on the floor. That, in a nutshell, is what has changed about this team
since the Leicester fiasco. We are not
soft any more and we aren’t easy to play against.
We weren’t brilliant upfront apart from the goal. Redmond had one of those
games where is head was down to often and he continually lost the ball and this
is something that Obafemi carried on when he came on for Ings late on. Djenepo was
a bit frustrating out on the left-wing though Spurs were aware of the danger he
posed and closed him down pretty quickly with two men. On the other side, Armstrong looked to be
blowing out of his arse from the start of the second half onwards but had another
good game. Upfront, I thought Shane
Long was excellent when he came on, in a game that really suited him and what
more can you say about Danny Ings, King of the Scummers? It’s an absolutely
brilliant goal and the fact that he sent Toby Alderweireld sliding out of the
stadium for a hot dog just before he scored was the icing on the cake. It’s not
just the goal though, it is the defending from the front. How many times did he
block Vertonghen clearing the ball up the pitch?
Spurs were odd. Dele Alli is an absolute fucking disgrace. On reflection, there was the slightest touch
by Stephens but not enough to send him down. The introduction of VAR means that players
like him will be looking to go down even more than they did already because we
are still not booking people for diving.
Two horrible dives in the first half, one under minimal contact and one
under no contact and then he spent about three or four minutes appealing,
running around after Mike Dean with his arms out, pleading I assume for a VAR
review. Embarrassing and grow up you silly little twat. Mind you, he might be
onto something appealing to Mike Dean, who was absolutely atrocious throughout.
The foul count was 21-6, yet Spurs manage to have four players booked which
suggest the Dean was only refereeing one way. Basically, it had to be a pretty
bad foul for it to be given against Spurs whereas any time there was any sort
of tangle that could’ve been given either way, it went to Spurs, every fucking
time.
One of the Spurs bookings was, of course, José Mourinho who got involved in a spat
with Andrew Sparkes, our goalkeeping coach. This and his subsequent interview
where he called Sparks an idiot is classic José deflection to deflect attention
away from the fact that his team were absolutely shit. Pundits are now talking
about Jose being a nutter (which everyone knows anyway) rather than looking at
his shortcomings.
It is an absolutely brilliant win for Saints and for Ralph and ridiculously, as
I left the ground we were 11th in the league and above Arsenal. What the fuck
is going on here? It is interesting though to see teams who were at the bottom
of the league all season like ourselves, Norwich and Watford all showing signs
of life whereas the likes of Newcastle and Bournemouth are free-falling towards
the bottom three. I did see a funny comment from a Bournemouth fan who said
that in the event of them getting relegated, all they will have to show for
their years in the Premier League is a shit squad and new electronic turnstiles
on the Dean Court shed that they play in.
We march on, as the marketing slogan goes and on to a home FA Cup tie against
Huddersfield on Saturday. I’m expecting to see the likes of Vestergaard, Yoshida,
Gunn and Romeo all playing as we should surely have enough to get past the
struggling Championship side. It’ll be
nice to watch a game without much pressure.
League 1 Minus 10 
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