:pl: :arsenalfc: Arsenal v Saints :saints:

Maybe there should be, can’t remember who I voted for but I doubt they post anymore.

#fancyacoupa?

I think we need a fresh start. I propose new elections of the Soviet. Everyone must meet pap at brexit party HQ for a pint of bitter though.

I vote for myself.

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I think your success will come down to the result tomorrow and your promise of what the footy score will be. I would put myself up for selection but I am stepping down to focus more time and energy to trimming/plucking hair from my face holes.

Edit: Do ears count as part of your face?

No they are headliners so may see them at Glasto.

Ears are part of the face.

My new hairdresser (2 years now) trims my eyebrows for me using a clever comb/scissor action. I then do some tidying myself at home with little scissors that I also use to cut the noise hairs. I won’t pluck them as it hurts. I have hair sprouting in lots of places.

If elected to the Soviet, I promise to get match predictions correct and trim a lot of the hair from people. Any hair from any person.

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My god I’m so aroused now. I always knew you were a dreamboat, Fatso, but I never dared imagine that you’d be such a dreamboat.

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Does that include grey chest hairs or is it a false manifesto promise…

Read the words. Read my lips.

ANY HAIR FROM ANY PERSON

Does that hold if you don’t win a majority but have to form a coalition Soviet?

Sorry, I can’t trust manifesto promises these days, most of them are just hot air and wind.

Sorry guys lots of busy days this week and no time at the laptop this was not copying easily on the mobile.

Champions Manchester City away, twice. Exactly what Southampton did not need after a traumatic, historic defeat.

The gloomy predictions were that more misery awaited Ralph Hasenhuttl’s shellshocked side in Manchester following that 9-0 humiliation at home by Leicester.

In the unlikeliest venue, however, the first shoots of recovery came in two valiant defeats.

‘We needed to show real heart in the (EFL) cup game (a 3-1 defeat) and I think we managed to do that,’ says Saints midfielder Oriol Romeu.

‘We then took it up a notch against City in the league game. Ultimately, the result (a 2-1 loss) meant nothing, but everyone could see the effort and commitment we put in. It is that energy, desire and character that we have to apply as an absolute minimum moving forward.’

Results aside, those City performances were the sort of response that was required after Southampton’s night to forget against Leicester, a barely-believable loss that equalled the biggest ever in Premier League history.

‘It was just one of those nights when nothing seemed to work and it was obviously made harder by having a man sent off early on,’ Romeu says.

'The way it all panned out, it just became a blur. Immediately after, the dressing room was silent.

We knew we had let everyone connected with the club down. A game like that leaves you feeling pretty empty. It is not something that just goes away quickly but you have to move on as quickly as you possibly can.

'We were in first thing the next morning, got everything out in the open and decided what needed to be done to make it right.

‘We spoke about the donation to Saints Foundation (a day’s wages from players and coaching staff) and the demands from each other. We agreed it was not a time to panic or for public statements; more a time to focus as only performances can put this right.’

When Romeu was rising through the ranks at Barcelona, watching and learning from Xavi and Andres Iniesta, life at the foot of the table, never mind such heavy defeats, would have been a long way from his mind.

The same at Chelsea when he was part of their 2012 Champions League-winning squad and being hailed as the heir to Claude Makelele. Fast forward to 2019 and Romeu is discussing Southampton’s hopes of avoiding a third successive battle to beat the drop.

He says: 'Sometimes I can find people thinking, “Ah, I’m not the player to be in this situation, I’m a much better player”.

‘If you are here, it’s because you deserve to be. If you were better you would be somewhere else. It’s as simple as that.’

That is Romeu in a snapshot. No nonsense, straight talking and not one for burying his head in the sand. Just the sort of character Southampton need in these circumstances.

Anyone familiar with the tough-tackling midfielder won’t be surprised that he is not shirking the challenge.

‘At the beginning of the season, people were linking us with the top 10, but if you look at the way everything has been going the last two years, the odds were it wouldn’t be that easy,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to be saying something that is not true or that is not happening at the moment.’

Romeu is as well-placed as anyone in Southampton’s squad to discuss their predicament.

He is among their longest-serving players, has seen some highs and also survived the lows, including the ‘stressful’ narrow escapes in each of the last two seasons.

Now 28, he is a senior player responsible for setting an example, just as Xavi and Iniesta were at Barcelona.

‘I saw a sentence last week that sums them up,’ said tennis fan Romeu, who says the statement also applies to another of his sporting idols, Rafael Nadal.

'They were described as ordinary people doing extraordinary things. They had been two of the best in their sport for the last 10 years and still behaved normally. I remember one possession (period) in training that wasn’t good enough.

'Later I was stretching, Xavi was next to me and we were just talking normally about us not being in good positions and why it wasn’t as fluent as normal.

‘I was just 18 and hearing advice from someone (like him), but he was doing it naturally and not thinking, “I’m not going to spend time with this kid, I’ve got better things to do”. That’s not the way they behave and not the way they are, so you can only admire them.’

Romeu joined Southampton in 2015 and there was plenty of admiration around for them, too.

Following their 2012 Premier League return, each of the first four seasons brought improvement culminating in a sixth-placed finish in Romeu’s first St Mary’s season.

His second year brought a Europa League campaign and a League Cup final appearance - but the league slide had begun.

They finished eighth that season, then 17th and 16th in the last two campaigns. Romeu believes that changes in the dressing room rather than the dugout have had the biggest impact.

‘The habits weren’t the best. We were a bit more selfish and didn’t think that much for the team and were thinking more individually,’ Romeu explains.

He reels off a list of players who have departed - Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Jose Fonte, Morgan Schneiderlin, Adam Lallana, Victor Wanyama, Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle. ‘We can go on,’ he says. ‘Once you lose a good player, you then need to have a stronger group to fill the gap.’

Creating one is now the responsibility of Hasenhuttl, Romeu’s fifth permanent Southampton manager.

‘The last two or three managers couldn’t get it right but I’m confident this manager can,’ Romeu insists.

'He is trying to get the good habits and have that work ethic consistently, a very good routine, everyone respecting each other and trying to avoid the egos because that, in the end, is going to punish our team.

‘I’m not trying to say we have uncontrollable egos, but it is a matter of the whole habit coming from the team. The better we can do it, the more results we can get.’

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Now Xavi was a great footballer. And an even better judge of a great footballer.

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I’m struggling to see where we’re going to pick up points at all at the moment, and this won’t be the game which breaks our abysmal form. Defeat by 3 or more, and could be a heavy defeat.

They are good going forward, bang average in midfield and pretty poor at the back. Therefore I’ll be disappointed if we don’t at least give them a game and lay a glove on them.

I will be in attendance (from an Arsenal stand somewhere) so will provide a first hand account of how good, average or shit we were.

If any sotonians are predrinking nearby then let me know :beer:

Well I’ve been to all of our away defeats this season, except Spurs in Norf Lahnden. I will be missing out on their norf lahden neighbours … same again then. Flatter to deceive but ultimately couldn’t even beat a 10 Spurs, but likely to be us down to 10 this time.
However I haven’t actually been to any of our 4 away wins this season … so who knows!!

Hope this helps.

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I’ll be about and i believe @Saint-CD will as well.
Anywhere is fine for me.
I haven’t been to the sponsorship stadium since Clyne’s volley. I was sitting with them then and they stand up every time they get the ball. They then had the check to ask why i refused to sit back down (for the 30th time in 10 minutes).
Let me know if it’s still like a church service on speed😁

Edit: we will score

@SO5-4BW and I will be in the Brownswood on Green Lanes from about 12:30 should anyone care to make it over that way. Not a massive distance from the ground but not so close as to be utterly rammed. Not sure if @Saint-or-sinner’s bladder will make it from pub to ground in one go though. Come to that, I’m not too certain about mine either.

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I’ll find it.
As for the beer forced regularity, i’ll go for the tried and tested ‘breaking the seal’ technique, which should get me about halfway to the ground :lou_facepalm_2:

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Fuck it, I’ll do it even if I lose. This is me. This is how I roll. My motto:

ANY HAIR FROM ANY PERSON

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Let’s get trimming done?

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