Saints At Chelsea The Verdict Thursday, 26th Dec 2019 17:40 Perhaps the best performance under Ralph Hasenhuttl saw Saints deservedly win at Stamford Bridge and in doing so move up to 14th in the table. For perhaps the first team this season Saints completely cut out the major errors and in doing so gained a win that few Saints supporters would have laid money on and possibly not even a single neutral. Saints were lambs to the slaughter according to the media, all the talk was about their great win at Spurs and how they were now going to move up the table and into the top 4, but Saints had a game plan and it was for the first time this season implemented from the first minute to the very last and the errors of the last few months were completely cut out. Some raised their eyes at Danny Ings on the bench and Obafemi and Adams up front, but as I predicted in the preview I felt that Ralph Hasenhuttl might just have a surprise up his sleeve. Adams had the better game but Obafemi took the plaudits with a superbly taken goal. But fair play to Che Adams he got stuck in and held the ball up, created space and chances and won vital free kicks. The longer the game went on the more we grew in confidence, in the final 20 minutes we didn't panic and tried to play our way out of trouble and Chelsea barely troubled Alex McCarthy to the final minutes when a free kick was dealt with easily. This was a team performance though and it was hard to pick a man of the match but personally I agreed with the pundits that if everyone else was 9/10 then James Ward Prowse was 9.5. Holding the midfield with Hojbjerg he tackled like a terrier and used the ball well whether it was short or long, he like several others had their best games of the season. Special mention also to Jack Stephens who if Villa was his best game in a Saints shirt he surpassed that at Stamford Bridge, perhaps the threat of a January signing is spurring him on. So Saints are now up to 14th, still only 3 points above the drop zone, but leapfrogging several teams for the first time in quite a while actually being the highest placed South Coast team. Now we can move forward with a team that has regained it's pride, regained it's confidence and but for errors in 3 out of the last 5 away games would be 10th this evening, which shows tat we are not as bad as some would have had you believe. We have used the defeat to Leicester in a positive way and both team and manager have learned lessons. A year ago after 19 games we were 15th with 15 points this season we are a full 6 points better off and although the gap between us and 18th is still the same ie 3 points, we are a lot closer to the finishing line than a year ago and we can get closer if in our next two games we can replicate our away performances at St Mary's Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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