Southampton in the FA Cup

[brimson25]

I know they are a few Southampton fans in the forum. Really intriguing Cup semi-final coming up, particularly given the recent league meeting, which was one of the silliest collapses I recall for a long time.

Chelsea looked bored, good for a few minutes, then bored. I suspect they might resume their bored phase on Sunday. Their manager is obviously disgruntled, and that really expressed itself through the team for (sadly for Southampton) most of the game on Saturday.

Question is: will Southampton care? If they do, that makes the odds on a Chelsea win too short - 1.4

[Kafkaesque]

I noted this pricing as weird as well, even if it's closer 1.45-1.50 than 1.40. The market closed at 1.80ish for a Chelsea at the weekend, and despite it being Soton home versus neutral this time around, it seems a strange one after the weekend.

Hughes seemed such a uninspired appointment by Soton imho. Still though, two factors for me are: Hughes, nomatter how much he's been hired to be a pragmatist and secure survival, is an old-style British manager in many ways. I cannot see him not respecting the FA Cup in a semi, and he will field the strongest possible team imo. And the second, he'll be seething after letting that slip at the weekend, will have them fired up to set it right, and from a more practical point of view will imo think that taking a positive into and away from this match will be vital for the final PL matches.

For me, there's no doubting Soton's commitment. In fact, you're asking the wrong question. The real one is, what will Chelsea's attitude be like? If they show up 100% committed, the price is probably just about right. This squad (or parts of it at least) have previous strikes against them in terms of nearly completely downing tools when they don't fancy the manager, so...

The price is based on the thinking that Soton have more important matches coming up, while Chelsea, in all likelyhood, only has this tournament left for anything meaningful and thus will give it their all. Wrong on both counts imho.

[Euler]

Saints are probably doomed now, so they should be fired up for the cup.

[brimson25]

Saints are probably doomed now, so they should be fired up for the cup.

In some ways, losing at the weekend made a win on Sunday more likely, weirdly!

[brimson25]

I noted this pricing as weird as well, even if it's closer 1.45-1.50 than 1.40. The market closed at 1.80ish for a Chelsea at the weekend, and despite it being Soton home versus neutral this time around, it seems a strange one after the weekend.

Hughes seemed such a uninspired appointment by Soton imho. Still though, two factors for me are: Hughes, nomatter how much he's been hired to be a pragmatist and secure survival, is an old-style British manager in many ways. I cannot see him not respecting the FA Cup in a semi, and he will field the strongest possible team imo. And the second, he'll be seething after letting that slip at the weekend, will have them fired up to set it right, and from a more practical point of view will imo think that taking a positive into and away from this match will be vital for the final PL matches.

For me, there's no doubting Soton's commitment. In fact, you're asking the wrong question. The real one is, what will Chelsea's attitude be like? If they show up 100% committed, the price is probably just about right. This squad (or parts of it at least) have previous strikes against them in terms of nearly completely downing tools when they don't fancy the manager, so...

The price is based on the thinking that Soton have more important matches coming up, while Chelsea, in all likelyhood, only has this tournament left for anything meaningful and thus will give it their all. Wrong on both counts imho.

Agree. I think Chelsea will be lacklustre for enough parts of the game to make the price way too short.

[LeTiss]

Interesting to read some of the comments on the Saints forums - many fans (given the choice) would be happy to see the club win the cup, if the trade off was relegation - their attitude being we've only won the cup once before, and we're bound to get promoted back at some stage, so let's win it and enjoy it

I suppose the good part for Southampton in winning the cup, is the status of playing Europa League football next season may convince a few of their prized assets to stay and give it a season in The Championship to get promoted straight back

[Kafkaesque]

Interesting to read some of the comments on the Saints forums - many fans (given the choice) would be happy to see the club win the cup, if the trade off was relegation - their attitude being we've only won the cup once before, and we're bound to get promoted back at some stage, so let's win it and enjoy it

I suppose the good part for Southampton in winning the cup, is the status of playing Europa League football next season may convince a few of their prized assets to stay and give it a season in The Championship to get promoted straight back

46 matches league season, potential playoffs, domestic cups and toss in European Thursday nights, half likely to be in faraway places, spells disaster to me.

I get, and respect, the sentiment and reasons behind, but getting promoted straight back in that scenario would be a bigger miracle than staying up now. More likely to do like Wigan and drop further, than come back for the foreseeable future.

[ShaunWhite]

I made a mess of my FA Cup and can only be saved by a Soton win.....Go Saints!

You're not down yet, end of season can get wierd.