Graziano Pelle earned his fifth booking of the season in injury time against Stoke City and will therefore miss the trip to Manchester City, but this is not all bad news.

Saints will be without Graziano Pelle for the trip to the Etihad next weekend to take on Manchester City after the Saints striker was booked in injury time against Stoke for kicking the ball away .

This lead Ronald Koeman to say.

It's all about the frustration of the player,"

"He was not playing well, he was not scoring and the team was not winning, but you have to control yourself always.

"We have to accept it and we will play another number nine next week."

Pelle will be a big miss at Manchester City, the way he has lead the line has been a big feature of why Saints have done so well again this season, however it could be a blessing in disguise.

A year ago Pelle was booked against Burnley and therefore missed the Capital One Cup quarter final against Sheffield United, a game that arguably we would have preferred him to play in than another Premier League fixture, it cost Saints dearly that night at Bramall Lane and the hurt will only be erased by beating Liverpool in the same round of this years competition.

So perhaps Pelle's booking against Stoke was a blessing, yes he missed Manchester City, but he will be fit and raring to go against Liverpool a few days later.

If he had not been booked on Saturday then he would have payed at City walking a tightrope, would his mind have been on winning at any costs or on avoiding a booking.

Therefore in the grand scheme of things, being booked against Stoke is perhaps the best thing that could have happened, without a doubt the Liverpool game is the most important fixture of the next month, I would rather Pelle playing than not.

Photo: Action Images

halftimeorange added 10:33 - Nov 23 "You have to control yourself always" is a bit rich coming from a man who at the end of the semi-final against Germany 2–1 in Hamburg during the 1988 European Championship pretended to wipe his arse with the shirt of the German player, Olaf Thon which could have provoked a riot. Having said that most of Pelle's bookings have been for petulance - an acknowledged but unfortunate Italian trait.

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schatfield added 12:29 - Nov 23 i would rather his miss city and be back for Liverpool, a game i would much rather win to be honest.
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ericofarabia added 13:00 - Nov 23 The Citeh game could be viewed as a free hit, so maybe missing this isn't so bad, however how will they react to getting stuffed against a team that included Lolvren in defence? Are we in for a hammering, or will we catch them at a low if they don't score early on? Our game is likely to be based on counter attacks, shame JayRod is out.
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SanMarco added 14:24 - Nov 23 We are not going to be top 4 but we COULD win the League Cup. That Sheff Utd game was the low point of the last probably three seasons for me, certainly in terms of on the field stuff. If I could choose which of the two to win it would be the cup game but luckily I don't get to choose so let's win both...
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leighsaint added 19:17 - Nov 23 If we play as we did last Saturday we won't get anything against either City or Liverhampton. We have to up our game again and get our passes to each other. Let's hope we can put it down to International Blues.
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SaintPaulVW added 09:06 - Nov 24 Defence and Midfield playing well is going to be key against City. Think they'll be right up to try to wipe out the embarassment of losing to our B team. Hopefully Sadio or Shane can get a bit of form and nick one.
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