Neil

What's he said wrong there? What's wrong with being ambitious? Chelsea look like the favourites at the moment. Although as I've mentioned in the other thread, Man Utd have problems at the moment, they'll be there or thereabouts for this season. Arsenal still don't look like the real deal, and I would not say Man City are a massive step above Spurs at this moment. It is a massive ask, of course, to get in these couple of "top, top players", but if they can, and can keep their squad fit on the whole, a title challenge next year is within their capabilities IMO.

Not a lot wrong with what's in that statement; whether it's actually what he himself thinks is debatable, could well be some agent massaging going on. Man Utd have big problems at the moment. Scholes, Giggs, Neville and VDV to name 4, won't last much longer. Rooney looks like he's on his way, Ferdinand is in his 30s and Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Hargreaves, Park, Owen and Berbatov are all 30 or near it. They need major investment to revitalise their squad, but where is this going to come from?

Precisely; it's just the opposite. Brace yourselves everyone, tonight's losing winning losing tips are coming shortly...

The bench isn't that strong, I don't think. They're all quite 'big' players with some advantages but, I dunno. None of them coming on would make me think "well, he's going to change the game." Of course, I'm being pedantic here because they already have the mentioned players out. All in all, it's a very good squad and one that can get far in this competition.

I still haven't got to grips with the Asian handicap despite more than one person telling me about them. But in terms of the simple -1, that just means you're betting on the team you've chosen to win by 2 or more goals, i.e. literally they are starting 1-0 down. For Bet365, go into the additional bets for the match you want, and scroll down to Match Handicap, or, sometimes it will be in Additional Match Handicap, or something along those lines.

Im always wary of Everton. Should be a good game but i'd rather win tonight than against you lot tbh. If we hadn't have picked up results-wise in the last 2 games I'd have expected nothing other than a Spurs win. But now I think we should be getting something. I'd take a point. And aye of course, tonight is one of your biggest games in modern history, surely? Depends how you look at it. In terms of playing with the big boys then definitely, but in terms of practical importance, not really. We've already done better than I expected, and if we lose tonight then that's just par for the course. We're still in a decent position to qualify. More to do with the grandeur of the occasion, yeah. Can you see yourselves qualifying? Presumably the Werder and AZ games are the biggies but it's surely not impossible you can get something from Inter at WHL? Fwiw, tonight I think it'll be a close defeat.

Im always wary of Everton. Should be a good game but i'd rather win tonight than against you lot tbh. If we hadn't have picked up results-wise in the last 2 games I'd have expected nothing other than a Spurs win. But now I think we should be getting something. I'd take a point. And aye of course, tonight is one of your biggest games in modern history, surely?

Thoughts ahead of the weekend game, KD? I'm desperately hoping tonight takes it out of a few of your players. I know of course they're professional athletes, but I can hope...

IMO you can criticise whoever you want, whenever you want. It's however a case of being rational in what you're saying and being proportionate. From what I've seen of Jonas, he does work hard yes, and goes on a few good runs, but equally he is rightly criticised for a consistently poor end product. Surely it is all about giving praise where praise is due, as well as discussing a player's weaknesses?

Said it once and I'll say it again, I quite like McCarthy. Consistently comes out with some crackers. Also, Piqiuonne is looking decent.

Hamann's eyebrows confuse me.

MOTD2 is cringeworthy to watch.

What's the actual reasoning behind getting a yellow card for taking your shirt off?

Man City look to have got extremely lucky today. Wrongly disallowed Blackpool goal, Tevez's 1st was offside and his 2nd takes a pretty big deflection.

Brilliant from Tevez for the 1st.

Apparently, Carragher at one point was having a right go at Torres (justifiably so), and Torres put his finger to his mouth 'shh'-ing Carragher.

Roy's lost his head. Poor Roy.

Early in the season. I'd be shocked if they're playing like this in 10 games time, probably less. If they are, then Holloway is a miracle worker.

I really dislike Man City, however the fact it looks like we could be seeing someone different making a sustainable title challenge is refreshing.

It could equally apply to both, I imagine.

Teams were equal as far as I could see. Heza and Kev were immense up front, some superb finishes. MOM though IMO was Duffy (I think it was him?) at the back for us - looked confident on the ball and ended quite a few Blue attacks. That said, everyone played their part. Good games all round!

It was a strange sort of match today; we were comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. Howard didn't have much to do at all, but we sat far, far too deep from a ridiculously early stage - better teams will punish us. However I'm obviously delighted with the outcome and the desire shown by the players, especially in the opening exchanges. There was one passage of play where Liverpool couldn't get out their own half because all of our players were going to close them down. Hope the knocks picked up today aren't much as we're already missing Fellaini, Pienaar and Rodwell in midfield. Yakubu obviously wasn't fit enough to last 90 minutes however I thought he was excellent in the 1st half ('bulldozer' springs to mind), defence looks to be solid again, and I hope Moyes gives Bily some more playing time. It was evident immediately how much more quality he had than Osman (although he'd have to put a bit more into the defensive side of things). Overall, chuffed obviously. Tough game next week like (Spurs away).

I'd say so, yes.

Anyone hear Hodgson? He claimed he "didn't know how they lost..." :lol:

Hope it doesn't piss down overnight like, would rather wear my normal trainers.