Taylor Swift

Real are being taught a lesson. Barca's best attribute has always been their pressing, which is otherworldly for a team with so much footballing talent.

Is tonight's match the most hyped league match in the past few years? I think so. Barca's obviously one of the best football teams in the world. Their recent run has been utterly dominant, something that hasn't been seen before in football in terms of their results and their performances. They also have Messi, who's on a similarly outstanding three-year run that, imo, is unparalleled in the history of football. I know Pele scored like 8000 goals but he did it only playing in Brazil and didn't have to face the extreme competition that footballers nowadays face (simply because more people play football nowadays so it's much harder to be that much better than everyone else - basic statistics), so I rate Messi's three-year run as being one of the best goalscoring runs in history. On the other side of the fence, you've got Mourinho who's arguably the best manager on the planet right now and he has playing for him a team of superstars, basically lined up like a dream FM team, with Cristiano being the pick of the punch. Now, I rate Messi as the best in the world but Ronaldo's not far away from him because he has similarly been on an outstanding goalscoring run in the past 3-4 years, and has proved himself at all levels. Of course, this match won't make or break either side's season with it being so early in the season but it should be a great match, full of goals, hopefully.

Meireleshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Would have thought it's highly likely. Every team to score in a round? I don't know man. Took 20 years to happen in the Premiership.

Wonder if this has ever happened in other European leagues.

That was fucking awesome from Modric. Fucking awesome.

Lucas looks much improved, for some reason.

5/9 from the spot this season

What a shite pen

Pen?

Good hit, Bale. Awful from Reina.

Should have shot. What the fuck, man, my fantasy week is going down the shitter.

Liverpool have been the better team, imo. They deserve the lead.

Holy shit Maxi, that has to be two.

Yes.

Liverpool look like they'll score a couple. Palacios is provoking the same type of reaction from their fans as Ameobi does from ours

Guthrie's passing can be very good at times. I thought his passing in the first half was spot on, his first time passes to switch the play was very good, but then he faded in the second half, maybe due to tiredness, maybe due to the fact that us dropping back too far meant he had to play a game that isn't really his. I do agree with the sentiment that he doesn't offer enough support to our strikers. His little passes in the center of the pitch are good, but then he needs to make runs forward to support the play because Tiote's already stationed in the center. I don't think it's a fault that can't be corrected, though, especially since he's shown that he's capable of it. I distinctly remember his goal against Portsmouth which rounded off probably his best performance for us - tidy passing, good movement, supporting the strikers with forward runs and actually scoring.

VdV done.

I will say yes on the basis I thought Guthrie was poor and there was one moment in the first half when I thought "Nolan would have been there". The funny thing is that Nolan is our only CM who seems to offer support to our strikers, but he's only able to do that because he doesn't contribute in defence at all. He's basically parked in the space and looking to get onto the second ball. It's a good thing and a bad thing because he seems to pop up with goals but it also means he's completely invisible in matches where we start passing it around/need to defend as a team. I actually thought the same when Ameobi nodded it down and no one was there to tap it in. Nolan would have been there, imo, but we'd also have been totally raped in midfield - even more than we were - if he had played.

He's mobile, which is such a good thing because all our other strikers are pretty immobile, except Carroll. He'll be able to offer something purely because he's got a bit of pace. I'd give him a start sooner rather than later and see what he's capable of because our other options - Ameobi, Lovenkrands and Best - aren't capable of much more, imo.

Yep. Ranger in for Shola would be what I'd do, but if Hughton goes for Nolan we'll still have a team capable of winning the match.

Tough one to call indeed. I'll take a point. We really can't lose because our December fixtures look brutal.

Anyone thought we missed Nolan today? I don't think so, but just want to gauge the opinions on here. I don't think he would have offered something that we didn't have this game. This game needed something that I don't think any of our players currently have, bar maybe Ben Arfa, and we were always going to play this way against a good, dominant team like Chelsea. We're always going to play this way against the best teams in the league which is why I think Nolan is superfluous when we need to play as a team like that.

All right, the little montage to build up this match about Spurs being title contenders has made me a definite Liverpool supporter for this match.