Beren

Villa starting Bent, Agbonlahor and Heskey against Citeh. They're playing under McLeish of course, so they'll all be playing at centre-half mind you.

Only have Silva in my team out of the big hitters everyone else has. My hatred of Man Utd finally pays off.

Anti-Liverpool-Online probably more accurate.

Feels dirty doesn't it? Watching these games is a headfuck. Really makes you question who you are.

Liverpool properly have no shame about diving/cheating.

Genuinely makes me feel more nervous about my bet than if I discovered one of the teams I'd backed was playing Barca at the Nou Camp.

Well, he did something very similar against a less shite Arsenal side last season. The pressure to break down a side with so many defensive-minded players requires a guile and incision that Liverpool at times struggle to demonstrate. At home, that can be a problem with the crowd on your back, and Man Utd are obviously adept at counter-attacking football with Young and Welbeck. That said, I think Liverpool's grit will see them win 2-1.

Nani on the bench. Think Ferguson is doing some risk management here. Keeping Rooney and Nani safe from the bruisers of Liverpool in a heated derby environment. Diminishes their chances of a win, but keeps the star players uninjured going forward.

But... but... but City are facing Villa.

With Aguero injured, I'm thinking of bringing in Bothroyd just for tomorrow. Don't rate the chap whatsoever, but bound to put a chance away eventually - and what better opportunity than against Blackburn at home

£20 on Man City Rangers Madrid Barca -1 Bayern QPR PSV and a single on Man City

Tiote might get sent off and the ref will ruin the game. (There. I secretly feared this, and now I've aired it, I've jinxed its real-life occurrence. )

I don't disagree with you, but tbf to Spurs they were missing Adebayor and Sandro for their games against the Manc clubs (and Modric against Man Utd) who are pretty key to them. Also, Dawson was playing.

That's brilliant, that. Might put ten on it.

Tiote needs to get an Adebisi hat and mash up Schibetta Parker.

Just saw they are after Lavezzi and Hamsik, the bastards

People may be entitled to moan if we play badly, tbf. A fantastic start to the season will not exculpate anyone from failure further on down the line. Obviously, maintaining perspective and proportionality is important, but if we surrender to Spurs in a timid or uncourageous fashion manner I'll be a bit miffed! We'll win though, so bit of a moot point.

Oh I don't mean in here, just the football media in general. People love to say stuff like "England have never been technically good enough to compete with the likes of Spain" when it's a blatant misrepresentation of the facts. The commentators on BBC just now about Spain playing in Alicante - "they last played here ten years ago... and they've never lost" Lawrenson: "Well that's no surprise" - maybe it wouldn't be a surprise if they hadn't been s*** for the last 50 years before Euro 2008. Don't want to take anything away from the current team but their success at the moment has more to do with Barcelona's frighteningly good youth policy of the last ten years than Spain's general footballing culture. They've got a very long way to go to be considered up there with real giants of international football like the Brazilians, Germans and Italians imo. Completely agree with your post. It was only 3 years ago that they were tagged the "great tournament bottlers". "Perennial underachievers" was the ubiquitous favourite IIRC. No one called them anything but that at the beginning of a tournament.

Spain/Chile double

Maybe I ought to be over it by now, but still gutted about having gone from having the classiest looking stadium to... that. Among the tackiest looking, certainly.

Disagree massively. Arsenal only fell out of the top two (Man Utd and Arsenal) when Abramovich came along. Since then, he's over-achieved with the resources he's had available to him. He almost always has. That's not to say he's been perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and his reluctant to recognise/inability to mend their defensive issues is a massive black mark against his name and an area where he does not cover himself in glory - but if you weigh that against his record of competing in and around the top four consistently for the six years given the heavy-spending bit hitters which have emerged around them, it's a blemish. Another manager may have come in and sorted their defence, but they would not have got the best of players, prolonged and nurtured the careers the same was Wenger has been able to, much less get them playing as attractive football. Arsenal aren't a poor club, of course, but if you compare their spending to Chelsea/Man Utd/Liverpool/Man City(/Spurs to a lesser extent) you realise how remarkable what he's doing is in the broad scheme of things. They've had a dire start to this season (and didn't end last season too pretty, either!) but to write them off from being in and around the top 6 is as silly as saying Newcastle will certainly be in and around the top 6. [Not that you personally have, Neil]. At the very least, deserves the benefit of the doubt to be given until he has a poor league finish IMO. The no-trophy issue is an interesting issue - and I'd say they've come close to getting trophies a couple of times, but that freak Birmingham match aside - they've generally been competing with teams with far superior resources.

Well, my justification is more with a view to future tournaments rather than this one. Spain have this one won - not to say we shouldn't try, but I think it's really important to cull those who won't (shouldn't) be there at Brazil 2014 (Lampard, Gerrard). This is a transitional tournament IMO. If England are ever to emulate/reach the heights set by other top class international teams - they need to be a team, so getting them playing together young seems sensible to me. I'm a naive idealist mind you. I don't give that much of a toss about international football (well, not England anyway) so my opinion could very well be fickle on this particular issue.