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In his short time at Southampton Claude Puel has already managed to emulate Arsene Wenger in one way. Like his former boss he has already drawn the ire of a small section of vocal and, excuse my French, "merde" fans.
The Arsenal bedwetters should respect everything their boss has done for the club whilst our moaners need to understand it might take more than three games to properly analyse a team's performance.
Now the pointless international interlude is over the games are going to come thick and fast. Over the next month we might be able to get a better grasp on what this squad can accomplish. Unfortunately, our run of tricky away fixtures and winnable home games continues this afternoon with one of the season's toughest journeys to the league's quietest stadium.
Table
So the original idea of this series was to replicate the question we all ask our friends or family on the way to the match. What's the score going to be?
The secondary motive was to laugh at how awful the punditry on TV is. Lawrenson, with his annoying sarcasm and terrible predictions, an easy target for mockery. Unfortunately, it has backfired, the former Liverpool man has now correctly predicted two games in a row and tops the table. Its early days but our main accomplishment here might just be to prove that sports fandom makes you biased and stupid. Here's the table:
| WRITER | POINTS |
| Lawro | 6 |
| Tommy | 3 |
| Merse | 3 |
| Geroge | 3 |
| Jake | 3 |
| Paul | 3 |
| Allen | 2 |
| Blaise | 1 |
| Dan V | 1 |
| Dan N | 1 |
| Will | 1 |
Predictions
Merse: 2-0 "They looked very weak up front and I don't see them causing Arsenal any problems when they attack."
Lawro: 3-0 "It is early days but Southampton have stumbled a bit so far."
Jake: 2-0 "Can't see Saints doing the job on Arsenal this time around. Cue online nonsense spewed over social media about diamonds and Puel being inept."
Paul: 2-0 "Hundreds on Twitter to start calling Saints relegation favourites and keep mentioning the 'dogfight'"
Will: 4-2 "We have used up 5 years of good luck in the last two league games at the emirates. God knows how we got a point there last season."
Dan V: 2-0 "Can't repeat our recent form vs them, can we? We're also still adapting, with Europa distractions in mind."
Tommy: 1-1 "Defensive-minded match, and Jose Fonte to score."
George: 1-0 "Late goal after a Forster worldie. You know it's happening."
Allen: 2-1 "Defensively we've been sound enough not to give loads of chances. But still won't have an answer up front."