Neil

Half an hour's very decent showing followed by nearly an hour of total complacency - some of the worst I've seen in many years at Goodison.

Right, well. Should be a good game. Like hell I'm wishing you good luck or owt. Will be back for the aftermath one way or another.

Barkley himself has loved a yellow card recently.

The line-ups have just reaffirmed my belief there'll be goals tonight. Would be surprised if it's under 2.5.

You've come as I and most suspected - to play on the counter-attack. And that's definitely the right way to play us IMO. Osman has been flat-out poor so far this season. McCarthy still settling - they've got a really big job tonight collectively to give a bit of protection when you're breaking.

Subs: Robles, Heitinga, Jelavic, Kone, Deulofeu, Naismith, Stones

Howard, Baines, Distin, Jagielka ©, Coleman, Mirallas, McCarthy, Barry, Osman, Barkley, Lukaku.

Naismith dropped, shame. Lukaku starts.

Interesting post, Sewelly. Realistically, can you actually see it improving as you alluded to in your last paragraph, in the next 5 years or so?

Paddy doing money back on the usual markets if the game ends in a draw. Could be worth going there if you're looking at FGS and the such. Sorry, but Ben Arfa anytime @ 9/2 with Skybet is far too big. He's your best player, already chipped in with a couple this season and this is likely to be an open game, so I'd be very surprised if he didn't get a chance or 2. Not that he particularly needs a chance as such, the talented wanker.

So, Roma ripping the shit out of the league so far. 17 scored, 1 conceded, 18/18 points. Napoli and Juve naturally close-by, and Inter have performed admirably so far. Fiorentina and Lazio looking like potential CL contenders, probably moreso the former. AC Milan have been atrocious. Next weekend's games. Juve v AC Milan Lazio v Fiorentina Inter v Roma

Just hold on a minute while I pop on my Newcastle +1 bet.

In other news, just to show how big a pinch of salt you need to take with league positions currently, a win for you tonight puts on-the-brink-of-crisis Newcastle above started-the-season-really-well Everton.

Am I right in thinking that Thomas Myhre is still sidelined with diabetes? Yeah, he's fucked. Steve Simonsen's at a Pulp gig too. Alex Nyarko lined up as emergency keeper.

Interesting decision. Curious to see how he deals with Nick Barmby cutting inside.

Kanchelskis passed fit for us.

Well, well, well. Just checked my bwin account - the home of the Higuain and Hamsik wincasts I was banging on about for ages last week. Just wanted to check I didn't have an extra tenner or something in there. And what do I find? My full stakes from last week have been refunded as they've cancelled the bets. Confirms that they made a massive pig's ear of the odds. They must have cancelled the bet shortly after the game began, mustn't have wanted to risk it. If either of those bets had won though, there'd be absolute hell on. But as they didn't... cheers bwin.

And rightly so. They're awful.

You say that mate but might be worth taking advantage of whatever their sign-up offers are. Barkley is just the sort of player who could make you some money in this market. I assume it'll go off whoever Sky give it to. Barkley has some compelling rhetoric to go with him - young player really impressing as he establishes himself in the first-team, been getting a lot of praise. It may be that he doesn't have to be the best player on the pitch as such, but merely impress with some good runs, an assist or whatever.

Can get 10/1 with Boylesports and Ladbrokes. Only other bookies doing the MOTM market - according to Oddschecker anyway - is Betvictor (6/1).

He mentioned he was pretty much done with the book recently, will get that ordered.

Looking back as well at their results so far, they were gifted 3 points at Elche due to one of the worst penalty decisions in years, should really have lost at Villarreal given how much they were 2nd best, and IIRC they only just scraped past Betis on the opening day? Can see why there are already murmurs about Ancelotti, at least in the sometimes psycho Spanish press.

What, in particular, are the rags pointing at? The specific way they're playing? Team selection? Even if he completely fails with RM, I'll find it very, very hard not to still consider Ancelotti a great manager.

Pretty sure 1878 was here well before me, mind. Always enjoy reading his posts, although I guess I'm bound to.

What's been the reaction in Spain, VI? Is it more a condemnation of Real, or more of a "wow, Atletico might be the real deal"?