Saints cruised past Crystal Palace with ease to end the day in 4th place in the Premier League, the only down side being they should have scored more.

The statistics show just how much Saints dominated this game against newly promoted Palace, 62% possession compared to 38% is an extremely high rate, the shots on target of 8 out of 12 isn't shabby either with the Eagles failing to muster one effort on target meaning a quiet afternoon for Artur Boruc, but for all that there one or two moments when Saints could have given it away, not least in the first half when Chamakh finding himself through on goal strangely chose to throw himself to the ground rather than slot the ball past the advancing Boruc, Saints had been caught cold but got away with it and made sure it didn't happen again.

The first half followed a familiar pattern to the previous games, Saints dominating but not really looking like scoring, a header from Schneiderlin being headed off the line being the only real decent effort on target we had apart from a Lambert effort.

But this changed in the first minutes of the second half, Saints have Nathaniel Clyne to thank for his tenacity in not giving up what looked like a lost cause after Saints conceded possession, he hounded the Palace players into giving it back and moments later Osvaldo opened his Saints account with a crisp finish for the first Saints Premier League goal from open play..

Moments later a Lambert free kick that ranks up there with his best thundered in off the post and Saints were firmly in the driving seat and heading into the top four if only for a day.

Disapointingly for all their possession though Saints couldn't add to their lead and the fact remains that we are still struggling to find goals from open play and find a fluidity in that play, Palace are not a good side and we should have made them pay far more than we did.

I still think that the formation of playing both Lambert & Osvaldo is hindering us rather than helping us, but if it makes both raise their game then it has to be a help, but the problem is on Saturday to accommodate them both it means that we have to sacrifice creativity in midfield and in that respect it was a surprise that Ramirez didn't play more of a part in the game, four minutes at the end not being enough to make an impact.

Dejan Lovren was perhaps a key figure again in that he is a commanding presence and he has certainly made Jose Fonte look a far better player for it, but star of the show was Osvaldo for his willingness to run and run and for his clinical finish .

But overall two straight wins have pushed us right up the table and in the past week we have turned what could have been a poor start into a great one, but we shouldn't sit on our laurels, we now need to do the same to Swansea next week and set ourselves up nicely for a trip to Old Trafford where we will look for our first League win there for 26 years when Colin Clarke scored both in a 2-0 win.

Saints are now settling in to a pattern where we don't concede many goals, we are tight at set pieces and don't get caught on the break as we did so often last season, the downside is that going forward we are not creating so many clear cut chances or at least we are not finishing off our chances as we should do, if we get this part of the game right then we could be looking at the top 10 finish that we allude to and perhaps more.

Photo: Action Images

bstokesaint added 21:28 - Sep 29 You didn't mention Chelski and the two Manchester clubs dropping points as a further positive. How things have changed..
0

davepid added 21:29 - Sep 29 Rupert Lowe we all hate but he did once say no one should look at their league position until they've played 10 games. Wise advice especially now we are 5 th for a week and at least one of your correspondents will say - we are good for Europe. The good thing about Palace was that we won. Last season we lost home games against poor teams. - Wigan, QPR and Sunderland. Good teams should despatch poor teams at home 2 - 0 or 3-1 . If we had won those games last year we would have had 50 pts and finished 8 th ,which wouldn't have flattered us, in my view. I agree with u Nic that we should have scored more. We never maximise the possession we have and we need to score more goals . - and one sometime in the first half of a game, would be brilliant. But we got the points and that will do for me.

0

davepid added 21:29 - Sep 29 Rupert Lowe we all hate but he did once say no one should look at their league position until they've played 10 games. Wise advice especially now we are 5 th for a week and at least one of your correspondents will say - we are good for Europe. The good thing about Palace was that we won. Last season we lost home games against poor teams. - Wigan, QPR and Sunderland. Good teams should despatch poor teams at home 2 - 0 or 3-1 . If we had won those games last year we would have had 50 pts and finished 8 th ,which wouldn't have flattered us, in my view. I agree with u Nic that we should have scored more. We never maximise the possession we have and we need to score more goals . - and one sometime in the first half of a game, would be brilliant. But we got the points and that will do for me.

0

bstokesaint added 21:44 - Sep 29 On a serious note I think it's a little naive to suggest we would "thrash" Palace. Few teams get handed a whipping in current day Premiership football. Teams come with a game plan. Look at Sunderland and West Ham. And Man U's result against West Brom and Villa against Man City. Then look at results we got last season against Man C, Chelski, Arsenal and Liverpool. And this season against Liverpool too. I'm not really interested in stats. The only thing interesting about stats is that they can be twisted to suit virtually any argument. What I do know is that we get better results against better teams and that's because the games are more open and that suits us. We're better than a lot of people give us credit for.

1

SaintNick added 23:09 - Sep 29 a look at the tables last year from 6 games makes interesting reading and shows how things can change
0

slynch added 01:01 - Sep 30 Good article Nick. But are you like me in finding it difficult to come to terms with with new practice of printing the league tables in reverse order?
1

SaintDownUnder added 09:09 - Sep 30 I’ve come to the conclusion that our style isn’t conducive to scoring lots of goals but it is conducive to grinding out points. I think the possession stats and lack of goals are related, in that our pressure game allows us to win back the ball regularly, but we then look to first retain possession and then probe for an opening, this tends to mean we initially pass it backwards or sideways before we then look to get forward. This is smart and obviously coached, but it does allow opposition defences (particularly those playing away) to reorganise. Lovern is the best signing we’ve made in many a season and I agree with your view Nick that he’s helping Fonte’s game too Its strange watching saints with a sense of confidence about our defensive shape, I’ve been a fan for 25 years and I can’t recall ever feeling this way. The only concern about our style is it seems difficult to switch if we need to chase a game, we managed to do this against Sunderland but struggled against Norwich. I think first goals are going to be critical for saints this season. I think MoPo will persevere with Lambert and Osvaldo, as you rightly said Nick, Osvaldo will put himself about, but given our style set pieces will become even more important and Lamberts already shown his pretty handy at those, especially as it seems we only need to score once to win a game these days.

1

tiptop added 10:19 - Sep 30 Agreed Nic and SaintDownUnder. MoPo's style seems to be restricting our goal threat, particularly against teams who come to St mary's for the draw. I hope that will come good though and we will start scoring more when the players settle. Would be interesting for arguments sake to see how we would get on if Osvaldo and SRL didn't start together. Not going to happen by the looks. Lovren is clearly quality. I thought Lallana did well Sat. Showed some good touches and skill in tight areas to help create chances. Thats what we need Adam to do more of - and quash this 'found out at this level' talk. We do have Ramirez waiting in the wings as a goal threat. Once he gains the required fitness.

0

scummerlou added 10:49 - Sep 30 A good sign that we can win 2-0 whilst still not playing to our best, particularly in the attacking third. Not sure what the answer is wrt RL & DO, but have to disagree that Osvaldo was "star of the show"...he had a good game, but cant remember much link up with RL in the first half to create clear chances. The stars of the match IMO was JF and DL, these two seem to have forged a great partnership at the back and they also seem to help/gel with AB, who is now playing the best he has since his arrival. One concern for me is how playing VW in the anchor role has seemed to affect MS, he doesnt seem to be controlling the game like last season, is this due to VW in the anchor role?? But a very good result to get points on the board early in the season, unlike last year at the same time....but there again, it was a fixtures list from hell last season, so might not good to compare.. COYRs

0

Fordy added 11:10 - Sep 30 We are certainly more pragmatic this year. Under Adkins at 2-0 we would have carried on piling forward. On Saturday we just took the sting out of the game and didn't really push forward so much which killed the game as a spectacle. The old ways were more exciting but the new way will clearly get us more points.
0

Whatsforpud added 11:45 - Sep 30 It is good to retain possession, but we are in danger of passing the ball to death. It is like the old Arsenal but without the end product. Like to see someone occasionally try to beat a man outside the area, then go for it. But standing back a minute from tactics, you have to appreciate what progress has been made. Four years ago we started in League 1 with minus 10 points. What would the bookies' odds have been then, that we would be 5th in the Premier League four years later.

0

thegeneral added 16:32 - Sep 30 At the end of the day, moans and groans, formation, team selection aside, we have become a progressive club. The years and years spent in the top league before relegation and administration seemed to be spent just making up the numbers ; it feels different now, i can't remember a time when there was a greater feeling of expectation and ambition at the club. One day we might even get top billing on MOTD.

1

Blogs 31 bloggers

Sheffield Wednesday Polls