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FALL SAINTS
Last Saturday, Southampton conceded four goals without reply in a game where Aaron Ramsdale was also forced to make eight saves. On Tuesday night, they let in another four, while only creating one chance of note in a game where their goalkeeper performed more heroics and Cole Palmer spurned at least three chances the cold-eyed Chelsea assassin would normally dispatch in his sleep. And while Football Daily has no wish to riff, bebop and scat all over the ongoing pain of a Saints fanbase who probably had a fair idea the Premier League jig was up for their promoted side before a ball had even been shanked into the St James’ Park stands on the opening weekend, it is a measure of just how routinely awful and uncompetitive they are now that 4-0 scorelines actually flatter them. The only thing they have left to play for this season is the acquisition of three points that, notwithstanding a potentially record-breaking points deduction for Manchester City, will ensure they aren’t saddled with the ignominy of failing to overtake 2007-08’s Derby County and becoming feted for being the Premier League’s worst-ever team.
Despite not being terrible for as many as 35 minutes until Pedro Neto scored Chelsea’s second, Southampton were well and truly beaten at Stamford Bridge, the 15th time in the top flight this season they have shipped three or more goals. One suspects that even with 11 uninterrupted days in which to train before their next game, a trip to Anfield, with an unfair wind Ivan Juric’s side could finally be subjected to the record-breaking 10-goal shellacking two previous iterations of their team have narrowly avoided. While there is no shame in a team not being good enough to compete in the Premier League, at the very least fans expect to see the players try their best. Cast adrift at the bottom, the current Saints crop appear to have given up the ghost, while Tyler Dibling, the lone flower emerging from the brambles of the current shambles, is apparently no longer good enough to get into their awful side.
“It is a big lesson for all of us to create something stronger and better than this,” blathered Juric, who replaced optimism’s Russell Martin in December and arrived with a reputation for forging defensive solidity in his sides that he has carefully kept under wraps. “We have a lot of young players. They want to grow up. They are really good guys. Maybe they are playing in the Premier League for the first time. It is not easy. But I am not scared. If they work hard, we will keep going.” While Juric’s team may well do this, their ultimate destination remains unclear as they’re showing far less fight or spirit than the Luton side who got relegated from the top flight last season and are currently plotting a course for League One.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Taha Hashim at 7.30pm (all times GMT) for Tottenham Hotspur or Spurs 2-1 Manchester City, Nottingham Forest 1-1 Arsenal, and more in his Premier League clockwatch; Will Unwin will be on hand at 8.15pm for updates on Liverpool 3-1 Newcastle; and Emillia Hawkins will be all over England 1-2 Spain in the Women’s Nations League from 8pm.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
25 February, 10pm: “It’s my hometown club and I’m never going to walk away at any point. I’m under contract to the football club and if the owner wants me to stay then I’ll do everything I can, that’s all I can do” – Tranmere Rovers boss Nigel Adkins insists he is going nowhere after a 1-0 home loss to Accrington Stanley leaves the club third-bottom in League Two.
25 February, 11.26pm: “We have sadly both come to the conclusion that a change of manager will give the team the best chance of making the most of the remaining 13 games” – chief suit Mark Palios mutually consents Adkins out of the Prenton Park door marked Do One.
Tottenham Hotspur wanting to be called by their full name (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) makes me wonder what if other teams start getting into a similar trend; for example: Ballvereinborussiadortmundneunzehnhundertundneun (BVB09 Dortmund)” – Krishna Moorthy.
A humorous, if somewhat long winded, Asterix-related pun by Adrian Irving in yesterday’s letters. However, it does rely on the fallacy that away goals have ever ‘counted as double’ in European away fixtures. For example, two away goals does not really mean you have four on the scoresheet and that your opponents have to score five goals to win the match. Three would be fine. It’s a Vitalstatistix which ultimately dooms his Asterix joke” – Lee Richardson.
Thank you for the use of ‘et al’ in yesterday’s Football Daily. Being an American I’m unaccustomed to such highbrow word choice in our press, much less a sport-oriented newsletter. But in our defence, we are barbarians” – Mark Alfson.
Re: yesterday’s Football Daily: ‘Beyond wars, what story from the 20th century was bigger than the sinking of the Titanic?’ Just the development of aviation, cars, radio, television, computers and the internet, the atomic bomb, global warming, space travel and the moon landing, the spread of communism, worldwide economic depression, advancements in medicine including vaccines, the development and popularity of film, jazz, rock, and hip-hop music, and the widespread popularity of sports, including the Olympics, the World Cup, and the Premier League, to name just a couple” – Dan Davis.
The photo of George Burley in his Ipswich Town-themed motor (yesterday’s Memory Lane, full email edition) got me wondering if said car could ever safely be driven to and parked up outside of Ipswich, let’s say on a trip to Norwich for instance? I recall my experience some years ago of foolishly parking my VW Beetle in Burnley, forgetting it was displaying a Blackburn Rovers sticker in the back window. Perhaps inevitably, when I returned I had been relieved of both the sticker and my back window” – John Myles.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … John Myles, who gets some Football Weekly merch. We’ll be in touch. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
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