Well, I'll probably get a cartload of shit for this, but I'll say it anyway. Don't get me wrong, I'm bouncing as much as anyone. 3-0 away? And against a very decent team like Saints? You don't sniff at that.
But now that we've all calmed down a bit, I'd just like to point out that apart from one person, whose game was fabulous (by god how we've missed him, and not just this season, for the last two and a half years) not many players had a particularly good game. Navas worked very hard, and did a lot of stuff in defence. Kudos to him, but then, you know, he pretty much always has done that. Everybody was fair, but quite a long way from their best. It's a joke to say that Bravo had a good game. And that's not a dig. It's virtually impossible to call it either way, he had almost literally nothing to do. I will just say that he had me having kittens on at least a couple of occasions when he rolled it out one of ours (often Yaya) who had an opposition player up his backside immediately. That could have gone badly wrong. Well, it didn't, and let's just be thankful. I thought that KDB had an average game for him, which he's been doing for a while now. I have total faith in him, by the way. Class is permanent, etc. He did well on the breakaway goal, decent pass to Sané, but honestly, I would have been annoyed if he'd fluffed it. But then, as I've often said about KDB, he can be doing nothing very impressive, and then pull out something that nobody else on the pitch could have done (except, just possibly, Silva) — cue that sublime chipped cross to Kun. Kun himself run up blind alleys on a number of occasions, and didn't look threatening at all in the first half. But that goal showed all the bloody minded determination of the man. Eleven goals in eleven games, and people are talking about offloading him? Er, excuse me? He was also working hard elsewhere, and as I say, a fair game, but nothing spectacular. That first half was sterile; we totally dominated possession (but then, that's our trademark) without really threatening anything. Yaya, I noticed, kept slowing down our breakaways, by doing that little cutback with his foot that he does on receiving the ball from the back line, and then, as often as not, making a sideways pass that breaks the whole momentum of the team. If the second half had been anything like the first, there'd be a lot of unhappy bunnies on here this morning.
Anyway, I'm not here to slag off the team's performance, just trying to establish a little bit of clear-eyed perspective. We won 3-0, against a reputable team, without playing anything like our best, apart from one player. When we do play our best, when you've got Kev, Leroy, Spanish Dave, Kun (assuming he's still here?) all playing at something close to the top of their game – add Jesus and Gundogan into the mix – and you've got something terrifying to come. Bring on next season. I am utterly certain that we will either be title winners or challenging right to the end. Meanwhile, top four and maybe the FA Cup will do me nicely.
