Saturday football

[Coffee]

"ASTON VILLA vs BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION (1230) Four wins from six have seen Villa climb surreptitiously up to sixth. Brighton have done even better. They’ve won all but one of their games this season and were it not for defeat at our hands they’d be level with Man City at the top. Two managers with a reputation for detail and decent football make for an appealing start to the weekend’s fixtures. It also makes it hard to predict. So refuge will be taken in the comfort of the fence. Draw. BOURNEMOUTH vs ARSENAL (1500) Things aren’t quite so finely balanced at the Vitality. The fence is the most the Cherries can realistically spire to in this one, though even that seems a tad far off. The two managers are childhood friends and seem to share the same barber. This should be fairly straightforward, but it has to be done. Away win. EVERTON vs LUTON TOWN (1500) The Toffees have a couple of encouraging results under their belt, at last, which should instil some of the confidence that’s been painfully lacking for a long time. Luton will want to put a stop to that, but can they? Nope. Home win. MANCHESTER UNITED vs CRYSTAL PALACE (1500) Ninth hosts tenth. Man U are too good for Palace. No surprises today. Home win. NEWCASTLE UNITED vs BURNLEY (1500) Eddie Howe seems to have a record of getting his sides properly into gear only once a few games are under his belt. Their midweek victory over Man City should have given the Geordies a mega boost. Sorry, Burnley, you’ll still be second from bottom at the final whistle. Home win. WEST HAM UNITED vs SHEFFIELD UNITED (1500) Only one who? Yep, him. What kind of reaction will the Blades show to their 0-8 mauling last week? With luck, their confidence will remain shattered, presenting all three points on a platter to their massive opponents. An early goal will help. Home win. WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS vs MANCHESTER CITY (1500) Wolves have managed four points from their six games to date. An uneven encounter is in store. Away win. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR vs LIVERPOOL (1730) This should be a cracker as two top managers and top four sides do battle. Impossible to say who’s favourite… so: Draw *SUNDAY* NOTTINGHAM FOREST vs BRENTFORD (1400) Forest are still unbeaten at home while Brentford haven’t yet got into the swing of things. They lost their last two league games – at home to Everton and away at Newcastle – and drew at home to Bournemouth. They won’t find Forest an easy opponent. Draw. *MONDAY* FULHAM vs CHELSEA (2000) Fulham are three places and three points above Chelsea, whose confidence is close to an all-time low. And that despite the billions that have been pumped into the players and staff. How things change – and how Fulham would like to get one over their near neighbours. Will they? It’s hard to say. Draw. *TUESDAY* LUTON TOWN vs BURNLEY (1930) Combine these two sides’ points this season and they’d still be in the bottom three. But Burnley should be too strong for their hosts. Away win. *CHAMPIONSHIP* Former leaders Preston were help to a draw at lowly Rotherham last time, allowing Leicester and Ipswich to leapfrog them into the top two places. Southampton, many people’s favourites for promotion, are severely missing James Ward-Prowse as they’ve slipped dangerously down the table, having lost all their four games this month and shipping 12 goals in the process. They take on sixth-placed Leeds in today’s early game. Michael Carrick’s Boro have lifted themselves from the bottom of the table and visit Watford this afternoon. Millwall in 11th host Swansea (21st), and tomorrow lunchtime sees table-toppers Leicester travel to Blackburn. The Championship is as competitive as ever."

[goose]

Newcastle 2-0 PSG No idea how VAR managed to give the second goal with one of the most obvious handballs you’ll see in the buildup.

[Mike Oxsaw]

"Dutch Tommy Doc., You're just a Dutch Tommy Doc., Dutch Tommy Doh-hoc., Just a Dutch Tommy Doc."

[Manuel]

"I see fat Frank is being heavily linked to the Rangers gig, why do these clubs still believe the hype about him? Fucking awful manager."

[El Scorchio]

"I forgot they signed Mount. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Yeah I think it was to try and tempt Rice as well, TBH. I also think there's something in that agent thing mentioned below. Quite a few of them seem to have been in the Dutch league or passed through Ajax at some point. Anyway it's enjoyable to see so much damage being done to them. I think they are genuinely in a rather worse state than when he joined."

[lowlife]

"Ten Hag looks like a right stubborn cսnt, maybe even more than our stubborn cսnt! They are an absolute disaster at the back to the extent that Maguire should probably get called back. Looks like Ten Hag has made his mind up though and is resolutely sticking to it. Classic stuff."

[RBshorty]

Mike. The Mount deal went through because they had a hole in midfield that needed filling. And to keep their English quota numbers up. (They thought getting rid of Maguire was a given.) But hey. Fuck them.!

[Mike Oxsaw]

"It's possible that they only bought Mount as bait with which they hoped to lure Rice up there and were quite willing to then ship him out had that happened. Amusing, at the very least, that he seems to have become one of their better buys."

[Manuel]

"This Onana business is very bizarre, what the fuck have they bought? The fella is an absolute calamity and surely must be close to being dropped? As for Mount, fuck me he's awful, even the penny has dropped with waistcoat now. Early days still but I think the Danish lad looks the real deal, looks like a real number 9 and has an arrogance about him too belittling his years. It just proves if you're good enough then you're old enough. Their game at home to the Bees on Saturday could def be worth a watch, massive pressure on Ten Haag for that one."

[Fauxstralian]

"DeGea was increasingly having his moments (thanks for jumping over Benrahma's BOBBLER) but has to be a better prospect than the Roberto-like ONANA. Not seeing any of the attribute he was supposed to bring as an Ederson style keeper. They have wasted millions on some ordinary players, seem an unhappy camp under Ten-Months who looks like he could start a fight in a phone booth. Casemiro is on the decline and has lost his Real Madrid immunity so will continue to get sent off while he is trying to hold the fort behind the likes of Bruno F & Mount. That said the striker Holjland looks promising ... runs hard, aggressive and gets in the box. In a couple of years he might be worth the £70m they paid but its a lot of pressure on a 20yo kid. Good news is that the GLAZERS are seemingly going nowhere so this shit show will continue. FANTASTIC!"

[RBshorty]

Fergie has fucked them. They were never a league team before he rolled in.( Only won it a couple of times in the hundred years prior.) And he’s falling out with the horse owners invited in the Yanks. As for the players there. Ain’t most of them who have been brought in. Clients of Ten Haag mate.?

[Manuel]

"goose - The best player, possibly, but Bellingham is comfortably one of the best players in the world today. As for the Mancs, it's a disaster on and off the pitch, fuck knows where they go from here, and I doubt sacking Ten Haag would make much difference. The Danish lad looks immense though."

[lowlife]

‘Transformational signing’ is all those twats at Manchester United were saying when Onana joined. He’s a ‘ball playing goalkeeper’ who will set up attacks more effectively. A keeper that lets in most shots that aren’t straight at him or very close to him is not really a keeper. It gets funnier by the game.

[El Scorchio]

"It's surely a matter of time for two bob to get sacked. Way way out of his depth and almost every player he's signed has been absolute shit. (Although it cracks me up because it's Man U signing them, every one gets a load of puff pieces and talked up as being a brilliant buy in the media before even kicking a ball) he's wasted hundreds of millions of pounds on 'clever' buys and they are worse than they were at the start of the season. Just getting into a deeper and deeper mess. Squad full of expensive shit they'll never be able to sell, and manager alienating half of them. Superb."

[Sir Alf]

"I think the Manq fans call him “Ten Bob” :-) The issues there are not just ownership but the whole club and its fans sense of entitlement. Their recruitment is getting worse too. They’ll be in the Europa by the looks of things? Although I’m not sure if they even qualify for that the way things are going? Arsenal as some of us said are finding this second season harder being “back”’in the big time. Teams will know their strengths and weaknesses. I always thought Rice choosing them to play in Europe and get trophies was a bit premature as they have only had last years great season. It took City a while to start competing well in Europe. Anyway, that’s enough of the entitles rich 5 or 6 clubs. We have our own tough encounter against the Jerries to deal with"

[goose]

Cracking game in Naples. Was it the England game thread where I said Bellingham was the best player in the world right now? He keeps proving me right.

[Sydney_Iron]

"Crazy thing with Onana is Inter signed him on a free from.................Ajax when ETH was the boss i think, he then turns around and buys him for ManU a few seasons later for how much? LOL Makes Brentford's upfront demand of £40m for Raya look pretty reasonable. He was right there given that he only ended up moving to Arsenal by default. Should have kept De Gea.......................but im loving it!!!!"

[twoleftfeet]

It‚Äôs been a long time since Rice was on a losing side in a European match ?üòÄ

[twoleftfeet]

It‚Äôs been a long time since Rice was on a losing side in a European match ?üòÄ

[lowlife]

"I was a GK at a fairly decent Sunday level. Onana wouldn't have made it in to a lot of the teams I played against. Terrible positioning, no spring in his legs, doesn't really dive that much and his big 'saves' are generally when the ball has been leathered at him. He's pretty shit with the ball at his feet as well - although his confidence is probably shot to pieces. That last goal where he was just off his 6 yard line and got chipped sums it all up. An absolute calamity of a purchase. Hilarious that they spent nearly £50m on him. Is he worse than Roberto?"

[happygilmore]

Onana is pony. Bad night for the fake Pep. Although Eerie rates 10hag as world class. Should have been 2-7

[Alex G]

So let me get this right... Man United spent 45 million on Onana for his quality passing the ball out from the back?

[RBshorty]

Anyone looking for Antonio’s replacement should take a butcher’s at Becker at Union Berlin. Already got himself a brace tonight in the Champions League.

[fraser]

He had a virus and wasn't fit enough to start due to not training. Feet seemed to think he'd been dropped due to form

[kylay]

"fraser 10:48 Mon Oct 2 Sterling came off the bench today. I guess you can call that ""not benched""."

[lowlife]

Andy Hinchcliffe reckons that Leno is in the top 3 keepers in the league. Dude’s a comedian. They now have failed manager Lampard giving his tactical insight.