Yep, it really was a very poor goal to concede. If Fonte is going to be standing by the corner flag he really needs to be given the ball and then when he can see that Clyne isn't going to use him he needs to make more of a move to get back into the game and in a useful position. Toby seemed to turn his back on the shot as well. Having said that the luck just isn't going our way at the moment. Their goal had two deflections that went perfectly for them yet we can't seem to get anything at the moment.

You watch, we'll put 4 past Sheff Ute then do Everton and we'll all be talking about Champions league football again!

Lets just ride this out, get our players back and push on.

We're suffering from only rotating a small number of first team players and fatigue is resulting in a lack of sharpness up front - getting more troops in January will help. Getting JRod, Morgan and Cork back will help. JWP will get up to match sharpness and his deliveries should help Pellet.

Like you say Nick, 4 weeks ago we were the hottest thing in English football, now were terrible......?

In truth it wasn't that different to other away league performances - generally in control and not much adventure in the final third.

Hesketh was good (awful foul on him btw), wanyama and bertrand again excellent.

Tadic and Mane extremely poor however, I don't understand why Mane was selected over Long for any reason you can name - grit, wintery conditions, form, pace, goal threat... I thought Mane was more likely to get sent off than make any contribution and for me was akin to playing with 10 men - to wait over 75 mins to make that change was ridiculous. I truly hope our coaches are working with him as everything needs work, starting with basic control. Tadic talks of playing with his head up but he obviously doesn't when taking pens... Jwp or pelle surely on them.

Another bad goal and that must stop - wasn't a good day for clyne... We also need to get Forster moving his feet - quicker feet and he saves the last 3 goals which all went between his.

3 points wasted against realistically the worst side in the league and we can't afford these if we want to keep schneiderlin and wanyama and sign bertrand and Alderweireld. Must retain these players! I really hope we start to pick the right formations again and show more ability in attack in the upcoming games.

Of the players that were acquired in the summer, the ones performing for us are those on loan and we really need to retain them, but recent results and lack of depth in the squad may make them feel that we are not a long term prospect for them, which would be a shame as they have been a plus for this season. The permanent signings, (though a couple of them had a good spell during our good run), are looking at best average and in some cases pretty poor, which may be down to confidence, stamina or whatever, or have lost motivation. Either way, hopefully RK will turn them around.

You always risk losing a game to a defensive error at some point if your attack is not producing the goods, so whilst the error cost us any points, arguably the biggest cost in this and other games recently has been our failings up front. In some respects, thus far, our season is not that dissimilar to the Pochettino era. A lot of possession, lack of cutting edge. We have lost points against teams that are poor - Villa, Man U, Burnley and Arsenal were not that special. Man City, granted, were the better side.

the way we are playing at the moment reminds me a lot of how Arsenal used to (and still do sometimes) play, as in 'try and walk the ball into the back of the net' - a lot of players overpass in the final 3rd, lose possession, and then start again..it can be a bit frustrating. Agree with the above in that Mane in particular is frustrating to say the least. Hesketh looked decent though!

That was the first match I have attended this year, thought Saints were great for 15-20 mins after half time and really took control. The penalty was the real turning point, had that gone in they would have closed the game down and looked to hit on the counter. Even if Wanyama didn't have a 50p head a point would have been ok.

Why are you pointing out possession stats now? ... Nothing has changed from last season except I think we've a far more loyal manager.

I don't think it's about luck at all.

In the last five games, Saints have had to so many chances (especially against Man U) but have failed to take them.

Our 'bad luck' will continue until someone starts to put away the chances.

If Aguerro or Van Persie had scored from the number of chances created, Saints would be 10 to 15 goals to the good.

I don't know if it's a confidence thing but forwards have got to do what they are paid to do.

Mane is increasingly a worry and seems to be behind the pace of the Premiership, which to my mind is going to see him sent off before long.

Anyway these results are behind us; we can only look forward, onward and upward.

At the end of the day we are just not good enough. The only important stats is how many you score and how many you concede. 2 goals in the last 5 games yield only 1 point. We need a lot more players to be able to compete with the top 4