Sometimes what seems a poor result actually is a turning point in a teams fortunes and that will hopefully be the case for this one.

Saints didn't play badly, they were just unable to break down a resolute Aston Villa side who spent most of the match pegged back in their own final third. The fact that Saints had 64% possession and 23 attempts on goal tells a story, but the fact that only 5 of those attempts was on target tells another. In contrast Villa only had 2 on target, one of which went in.

Saints could easily have been three up inside the first 20 minutes but were not clinical enough in front of goal and that gave Villa impetus to dig in and fight.

On the stroke of half time disaster struck, you could feel it wasn't Saints day with the lead up to Villa's goal, firstly Jose Fonte gave the ball away cheaply, Van Dijk looked to have rescued the situation and his block seemed to be going out for a throw, but it had a spin on it and it went for a corner, from that corner the ball seemed to be missed by everyone bar Lescott at the far post who put it in the net to stun the home crowd.

Second half Saints went at Villa but seemed to have little ingenuity in the final third, they got down the line enough times, but Guzan was superb in coming and catching crosses that on another day he might have left to his defenders.

The game changed through fate and that slice of luck perhaps suggests that Saints might have turned a corner, just after the hour Wanyama went of injured and on came Romeu, he seemed to add a little bit of urgency to Saints going forward and he seemed quicker that Wanyama in getting the ball forward and that helped us get Villa on the back foot.

Ironically the Saints equaliser was almost a carbon copy of the Villa goal, a corner fro the same side was allowed to travel to the far post and Romeu was there to put it in.

It was backs against the wall for Villa now, but Saints huffed and puffed but could not really seem to find a way through a stout Villa back four marshalled by Guzan ho commanded his box.

So as a result a draw was disappointing, we really should have won this well, but given Saints recent run of three straight defeats, any result is better than none and from that point of view, sometimes breaking a bad run is more important than winning, it will give us a mental boost and more confidence going into the game at Palace next week.

So from that viewpoint we should not be too despondent, we have broken the run, we now just need to recapture the form that had taken us up the table a few weeks ago, we are a better side than the last four games have shown, we do not need to panic, we just need to get back to winning ways.

Photo: Action Images

BoondockSaint added 00:23 - Dec 7 Guzman has been having an absolute horrible year! At times this year he has looked like a drunken Joe Hart! We should be able to score on him at will. Saints are lacking grit, plain and simple. Did you see how Stoke took on ManCitehad? They know the top teams in this league don't like to be played physical. Arnautovic just intimidated the lot of them-and he has a man bun! Small side note to Ralph: At the BlazerCon in Brooklyn New York, you were filmed saying to attendees: "I know we are not your favourite team, but we would like to be your second favourite!" To hell with that! We want to be either someone's favourite team, or the team they hate the most! That would mean we are a top team!

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BoondockSaint added 03:11 - Dec 7 One reason Leicester is where they are is because they beat the teams they are supposed to beat. Saints think they can just throw their shirts onto the pitch and win. It seems the only ones with a work rate are Mane and Tadic. Guzan is having possibly his worst year ever-in previous games he has looked like a drunken Joe Hart, yet we can't beat him. We need some harder players. All the big rich teams can be physically intimidated this year-look at the ManCitehad game yesterday-they were scared out of their minds by a man bun! Side note to Ralph: You were filmed at BlazerCon in Brooklyn New York last month telling attendees: "I know we are not you favourite team, but we want to be your second favourite team." To hell with that! We want to be either someone's favourite team, or the team they hate the most! That would mean we were a top team.

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BoondockSaint added 03:22 - Dec 7 Very sorry about the duplication folks! Didn't think it loaded and re-typed the whole bit of gibberish again!
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saintmark1976 added 04:47 - Dec 7 With respect Nick your response only reinforces the point some of us are trying to make.Nobody is having a go at the owner.The question we are asking is "is this as good as it gets or is there ever going to be meaningful investment to enable us to progress further?" If the answer is "no" then all well and good but as SaintBrock says please stop feeding us all the BS about being a team capable of challenging the big boys.

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schatfield added 08:54 - Dec 7 Maybe you are right Nick, but isn't it our right as paying fans to criticise the team when things dont look right to us? No one is having a bash at the Liebherrs; they are still the best thing to happen to this club in a long time. It is just perhaps we say things that appear obvious to us (e.g. why does Koeman ever play Yoshida, why never pick Reed, and so on)....yes perhaps these are the typical fans blinkered view, but we are entitled to moan on a sunday following the game and a crappy result. Right or wrong. I agree on what you say about the Southampton way; we have to be realistic. We are a fairly small club punching above our weight as it is. We have done tremendous to get where we are today, and I think the management trying to grow our commercial revenue is the way forward. It is just a shame that will always mean losing our best players along the ride.

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SingaporeSaint added 11:15 - Dec 7 Bad result and again not clinical enough in the final third. What worries me most is what has been alluded to above re the shooting practice and lack of half time Organization for the subs. I fear we are not being well coached. I find some of the match day selections very odd, Yoshida at RB etc. I find some of the subs even more odd - Long scores last week and does ok and this week we drop him and we put Juanmi on first - do we expect him to deliver more than Long? Mane frustrates me but he's our best offensive player - why take him off?? Some comments above on Guzan - we have JWP on the pitch so why not have him on every corner. Tadic's floated corners were a total waste and just gave him confidence. Just pick our best team and do the basics right and we'd have a better chance. Looking at recent results of the u21s and u18s - there are clearly issues across the entire potential squad. The manager needs to put this right and get our Southampton spirit back.

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stmichael added 11:42 - Dec 7 We have punched above our weight due to having champions league standard players. Now they have gone we are back where we have always been which is trying to establish ourselves as a top half premier league team. I made the mistake of thinking we were actually a genuine top 8 side. We are not and never have been and probably never will be. History will tell you who those top 8 sides are. The rest of us will dip in and out occasionally but realistically are trying to win a cup (or not as is our case) and stay above the rest. We have difficult times ahead not least because our strength which has been the academy has dried up somewhat and we will be looking for a new manager the season after this. Alex Ferguson tells of the problems within the club after he announced his retirement. Make no mistake unless RK signs another deal it will be the same for us next season. How can you get anyone to sign for the club when the player himself know his manager will be gone at the end of the season? Yet another crossroads for SFC.

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RogerToye added 16:31 - Dec 7 before the exodus we had players linking up so well. What a delight now we have a different link up and sometimes the chain gets buckled and the link up play is messy still we have money for any player bar the heavy priced bench warmers. that we could bring in what i would like to see is no one out a couple in .. and go with what we got two wins on the trot will get us back in that echelon of 567the place were we aspire too. if you named you first eleven bet it would change after a few draws or loses. lower teams with new impetus and manage,went will shut up shop and develop from the back its up to us to find ways of shifting the bus and unlocking the defences for me it is about variation of attack especially from central midfield Steven Davies starting to do something in games for example.

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RogerToye added 16:55 - Dec 7 Supporting Saints for 50 years.. always there or thereabouts back were we belong mid to upper table top div lets not have too many elusions of grandeur, we have one of the best managers in Europe who has to stabilise the back and has done remarkable with all that we lost. Alderwereld being the biggest disappointment but hey van dijk is just as good. We could buy almost anyone who has realistic wage bill aspirations we don't have the youth coming through has in the days of Walcott, Bale and chamberlain but that is cyclical we have some quality youngsters we will see sitting on the bench to spur others on to keep there place. depth is the best for a while this league is wide open anyone in top half gets on a run can win it. Remember what Wenger said that we would be in champions league if we kept all those players. maybe we have to buy a couple of players to spur us on in the second half of the season but we don't have to sell anymore.

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