Pilko

I remember thinking we played some nice stuff in that 2-2 draw vs Southampton on the opening weekend and feeling really optimistic about the SM era The rest of it was us getting absolutely ran over away from home (and sometimes at home too tbf) and him grinning like a tit in the post-match interviews, saying the word "magnificent" a lot and hilariously suggesting if we played like that all season we'd be fine. The home cup loss to Sheffield Wednesday's second string with De Jong as a false 9 in a 4-6-0 formation was probably the very early sign that we were totally knackered with him at the helm.

Can't help but be delighted to see that weirdo Brentford manager lose. Fulham deserve the W.

She's got a heed full of broken biscuits that lass. Anyone who gets national press coverage and represents our fan base should at least know their onions factually, and preferably not have utterly mental shit opinions like hers either. Tory Scabbers is nearly as bad but at least seems to have the ability to remember factual information.

If we can take the two performances we've just posted at home onto the road, we've a great chance of getting something here. If it's the usual away from home muddle, I fear we'll get beat. Forest seem to be a good side with their tails up so I can see us getting a draw here. 1-1 with the inevitable Wood goal assisted by Anderson for them.

Get in. Much prefer Wolves (and O'Neil) to Palace.

Not as shit as the Brighton (h) or Chelsea (a) ref today, but not great either. Very lenient with Arsenal, Partey in particular was warned about three times and never got the card.

Absolutely spot on today. Need to bottle that type of performance and take it on the road with us and we'll be fine.

Sensational today. That's why you keep him around, he's got it in the locker to really show up when he's not playing every single minute with an injury.

Arsenal were absolutely chod, we were fucking brilliant there. Can't wait to see Gunners fans cry arsing about that. Outplayed and outfought on the day, bunch of absolute limp dicks.

Good half that, we've been excellent without the ball. Hall and Livramento really showing up so far. Only thing to criticise is our attacking set piece deliveries which have been chronic.

Don't understand the caution around Tonali but perhaps there's something we don't know about.

West Brom absolutely shag a draw don't they? Five on the spin

I'd definitely like to see one of the lads stick a reducer on that bug-eyed Baby Reindeer lookalike cunt Havertz, he's long overdue after his elbow on Burn and lunge on Longstaff in recent years.

Sean Neave seems to be scoring a lot for the U18s and seemingly took his chance with the U21s today, wonder if he might be one of the next ones off the conveyor belt.

Howe is far from perfect as a tactician but to say he's "just a motivator" is a really peculiar stance. We all saw what happened when we had a manager who had no fucking clue how to set up a team and basically relied on "slap the lads on the back and get them aal fired up" as a modus operandi - it was shite and bleak. You can see that there's a defined tactical plan and that it's worked on meticulously - whether it plays out well or not. If you wanted to be critical you could say Howe can be stubborn or inflexible tactically some of the time (not all) and often comes unstuck when facing top level tacticians. But that second point is probably true of most managers in world football outside of the elite ones anyway.

He's still excellent, but there are occasional signs that he's on the wane a bit. A few times in the last few weeks he's gone haring out wide for a slide tackle and missed it by absolutely miles. You'd like to think Eddie can offer him some advice on how to remain super effective when his legs are starting to go. Botman coming back will probably help to cover some of these issues and we can hopefully continue to enjoy his fantastic distribution and occasional banger goal for a while longer yet.

Home tie! Against Brentford. Class.

Nice to see him back, great idea to let him have a little cameo and also let Tonali get some well earned applause.

We'll get Liverpool away. Good things aren't allowed to happen.

He was very good. Solid and reliable as per. Would be more than happy if we move Lascelles along and retain him as the occasional defensive cover for another year.

That was much more like it, I know Chelsea were abject but he shuffled his pack to good effect and then made sensible changes to ensure we saw it out. We all know how quick the tide can turn either way, but get something at the weekend and suddenly it's a 3 game week that most people would have settled for at the start of it (okay, depending on the cup draw in a bit ).

Much more organised tonight. Tonali ran the show, we need to find a way to allow him to do that more often. Isak looked much more at it and hopefully his tail is up after 2 in 2 now.

He's a proper player like. Can definitely improve his defensive positioning but technically he's excellent for his age and experience.

"I was gonna say like that but nobody can see us" fucking great commentary

Much better this so far.