ARSENAL ON NEW YEAR'S DAY

Any chance of a result??

It depends on which Arsenal turns up. The Arsenal who were diabolical against Swansea and Bradford or the Arsenal who thumped us 6-1 in September and Newcastle 7-3 last night. Hopefully being at home will give Saints an advantage.

Just hope we get stuck into them and dont sit back and give them acres of space. Have to play Rodrigues and Lambert up front and I would drop Puncheon to play Davis, Cork and Schneiderlin in midfield with Ramerez a free role. Attacking formation but a midfield that at least will have a high work rate.

Walcott seems to have hit form, amazing with his contract still up for grabs and him holding out for £75k a week, so he needs to be given a reminder he is in a game. Arsenal hate playing Stoke so has to be something in their physical approach which unsettles them. Unfortunately can only dream that NA will adopt his tactics for the day.

First goal will be critical, if we can get infront will make all the difference.

For me bottom line is a home game and therefore we need 3 points, treat as a cup tie and go at them as the underdog.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/8374562/?

I really wish Adkins wouldn't come out with stuff like that. Surely it is likely to make Arsenal want to prove him wrong!!

I had been thinking Saints could make a close fight of it and maybe end with an honourable 1-2 defeat.....but after Adkins' foolhardy comments my forecast is now 0-5 !

I'll take any score under 3-1.

Saints team: Boruc, Cork, Fonte (c), Yoshida, Shaw, Puncheon, Schneiderlin, S. Davis, Guly, Ramírez, Lambert

Saints substitutes: K. Davis (GK), Hooiveld, Rodriguez, Ward-Prowse, Richardson, Mayuka, De Ridder

Arsenal team: Szczesny, Sagna, Vermaelen (c), Koscielny, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere, Chamberlain, Cazorla, Podolski, Walcott.

Arsenal substitutes: Martinez (GK), Mertesacker, Coquelin, Ramsey, Rosicky, Gervinho, Giroud.

Well a well earnt point, and a good performance with most of the team giving their all. Wasnt surprised Boruc was brought in for davis after stoke game but would have gone for Richardson at right back and leave Cork in midfield. As it was, Cork had a great game at right back though after first 10 minutes thought we were going to get hammered. Saints let Arsenal have plenty of space which meant they could knock the ball around and Boruc scared the **** out of us with his handling dropping a couple of crosses and really did look shaky. After surviving the first 15 minutes Saints began to get in the game with Ramerez being the main threat. As the game went on Saints gained in confidence and although clear cut chances were few the pressure was building from saints. The goal when it came was a bit of a goal mouth scramble. Ball knocked in the box, guly toed the ball to Puncheon his shot was blocked but fell to ramerez who rifled home and was no more than saints deserved. Shame then that we threw the lead away with a soft goal to concede. Poor free kick out wide but Guly's attempted clearance put in his own net. Walcott had ball in net before half time but clearly off side.

For once we started second half on the front foot and had a couple of great corners from Guly where we should have scored. One fell to Lambert who looked knackered at the start but shot straight at goalie, though he did keep on target. Then another corner nearly turned in by their defender but saved. Arsenal had little real threat up front, our back 4 all had great games. Guly had a good shot turned around for a corner. Ramerez did have the ball in net but ruled out, guess for offside but hard to tell from where we were. Adkins got it right taking of Lambert for Rodrigues, not a great game for Lambert who was caught off side a number of times by not getting back on side early enough. Was surprised then when he took off Ramerez as he was our most creative player. Then even more surprising when Adkins brought on De Ridder, he did pretty much nothing other than caught out of position and getting booked.

Arsenal had a couple of crosses which Boruc this time claimed safely, and then you wondered if saints would hang on to get a point. one real danger point at end when Arsenal got space down the left and cut in the box and put in a real dangerous ball across the 6 yard box but Yoshida typified the spirit of saints today charging across and blocking the cross.

3 minutes of extra time actually saw saints play most of the game in Arsenal's half without ever really threatening but a good point for saints. Arsenal have been scoring goals for fun lately and we did nullify their threat. Back four all played well, midfield worked hard, Davis not great first half but improved second half. Guly to be fair worked his socks off and got a good ovation when he was subbed.

Boruc 6 really dodgy start of game but looked quite composed second half but didnt have a great deal to do but at least caught the ball
Cork 8 great game at full back, concentrated on his defensive duties but good game
Yoshida 7 good game and great block at the end but think he enjoyed the aerial battle with their midgets!
Fonte 8 Lead by example and calmed things down when needed.
Shaw 8 another composed game kept Chamberlain quiet all game.Must be £20m valuation now.
Guly 7 shame about the own goal but a cple of great corners and good shot on goal, worked hard.
Schneiderlin 7 little erratic, at times awful, back pass of 50 yards when we were on top then excellent
Davis 7 poor first half but still had energy at the end which was important.
Ramerez 7 main threat and passed the ball well
Puncheon 7 better second half and had a couple of decent shots on goal
Lambert 6 poor game by his standards, looked off the pace though still won a fair amount of balls in the air.

Subs
Rodrigues 6 showed some good movement and had a couple of good runs.
Ward Prowse 6 did okay and quickly got up to pace
De Ridder 5 really amazed he is getting on the pitch

Tremendous game. I felt this was the game in which our boys became men and I actually felt proud as I watched it on Sky.

It looked as though Ramirez' second 'goal' was disallowed for a supposed push.

Cork won Sky's Man of Match Award.......although they did say it could have gone to any of our back four.

Now can they repeat that performance? We did hit a fair number of balls to Rickie which is fine but you need another player playing off him if going to do that.

Also should have a real look at the boots and studs being used and tell players what they will wear and not based on any sponsorship deals!

Whoscored.com has tweeted.....

Arsenal had fewer shots in this game (6) than they have had in any Premier League match in the last 4 seasons

Shows how well we played in keeping tight, also shows that we didnt really get to see much from Boruc. as I said he looked comfortable in 2nd half but when not many shots to save that is bound to increase confidence!