Trumpet

Looks like HJK will be in EL groups. Must be some years since the last time a Finnish team made it to group stage of any European competition.

Tricky 7 days in November. Nov 1: Newcastle (A) Nov 4: Real Madrid (A) Nov 8: Chelsea (H) Other than that, the pre/post CL schedule looks pretty great. Was fearing a tough away tie before playing Man Utd away in December, but it'll be 5 days after Basel at home.

Lyon and Sociedad both out of the Europa League.

Switzerland and Slovenia are formidable outfits.......It's never easy to play in North-East european nations like Lithuania and Estonia either. Don't think qualification will be as straightforward as everyone seems to reckon when you factor who England have got managing them.

Won the H-2-H by one point after opponent had 4 pts off for making 2 changes ....who was it ?!

Can Warsaw play them again in the Europa? Hope they f*** them up in that too, if so. Not this season. Only the 3rd qualifying round losers drop into the Europa league, the rest are out of europe altogether. Actually, it's possible. Celtic will be pot 1/2 in EL groups, where is Legia (provided they preserve their 1-0 advantage over Aktobe of Kazakhstan in second leg in Warsaw on thursday), will most likely be in pot 3 of the EL draw. Legia's FB page has been gold over the past 3 weeks...full of digs at UEFA and Celtic...nice to see a team clearly not giving a fuck about the authority. Being drawn with Celtic again will be the icing on the cake ! They have an awful relationship with UEFA. Last season UEFA banned 30% of the stadium (basically the main stand of hard core fans) to for the final qualifier game vs. Steaua Bucurest for a small banner some random fan had brought in in the very first round which UEFA thought was Nazi, but all the Poles were like WTF, can't remember the details exactly.....Would love to see them go deep in Europa League since the final is actually in Warsaw next May. there were posted by their official FB page 2 weeks ago. http://i62.tinypic.com/2v2cuwl.png http://i61.tinypic.com/10nbb60.png

Legia Warszawa's official Facebook account http://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/17/10/96/59/screen16.png

Would love Celtic and Legia in the same group in EL. It'll be hilarious

Ozil really is pathetic defensively

Aston Villa 1-2 Newcastle Chelsea 4-1 Leicester Crystal Palace 0-1 West Ham Southampton 2-0 West Brom Swansea 2-1 Burnley Everton 1-2 Arsenal Hull 0-0 Stoke Tottenham 1-0 QPR Sunderland 1-1 Man Utd Man City 2-1 Liverpool

Yea and it didn't look as good as Coutinho in 4-3-3 (Spurs/Arsenal/Everton/City at home) and he was subbed off most times. Off the top of my head, first half vs. WestHam in April...and Coutinho was subbed for Lucas at HT. Against Southampton at St. Marrys Coutinho started at tip of the diamond, but was subbed around 50th min for Sterling and we looked immediately more comfortable afterwards.

^ Contrary to believe, I liked Sterling as tip of the diamond a lot more than Coutinho. To me, Coutinho's best games by far were as part of midfield 3. Yea, I think our record with diamond was 7 wins in a draw last season. Not sure how Lallana/Markovic all come into this, but I guess we'll find out.

Bayern Munich's last goalless draw in an official match goes back to April 14 2012. :frantic: :frantic:

Looks like we're still in for Eto'o even after signing Balotelli. WTF....that would confirm my suspicions that the 4-4-2 diamond will be Rodgers' primary formation going into the season. Really surprised if it goes through, mind you. Ibe reported be off to Derby on loan. Think a few Prem clubs could have done with him for a season...

Callejon

Man, managing a fantasy team is so nerve-wracking...imagine being an actual football manager trusted with millions of actual money

^ Collins sent off, Felipe Luis and Davies not playing, Ferdinand being the worst player on the pitch... Really made a mess of that defense selection. midfield was class, however. Always like to have strong FF starts, because it really sets the tempo. As for potential incoming transfers before TW shuts....I guess if Di Maria/Vidal come, they'd be on 10+ , which isn't value compared to some of the proven current options. Ozil last year for 10.5 was an awful pick, bought almost everyone did their WC just to fit him in..

I already have a defensive crisis for next week. Gonna play the wild card. 55 points which is an awful start.

Felipe Luis doesn't start. Fuck off Mourinho. H-2-H badly in danger now.

Wow. He must have had an absolutely awful agent. Surely he could have pulled a Jason Roberts and doing Media work for more money? Credit to him for wanting to play, like. Their league doesn't start until the 28th. Fuck me, the city looks like 20 km away from the Syrian border

Chance to go top. 3-2 to Newcastle. (The only previous NUFC game I predicted in pre-match thread was 2-0 win over Chelsea, so omens are looking good)

Southampton were fucking brilliant. Defo deserved a point. Somehow these wins feel more enjoyable than thrashings though.

Keeps the fans happy in the transfer muppetry mode all summer with all the shiny names. The Vidal thread on RedCafe has 551 pages !!!! ......what happens after September 1st is another story of course Having said that, what sort of a total idiot goes out and publicly says we have 200M pounds to spend....literally, wtf.

Thought by now people would have known not to take Man Utd related rumours seriously. Thiago, Fabregas, Schweinsteiger, Hummels, Vidal, Di Maria, Kroos etc have all been done deals according to media in the last 2 summers. Woodward is a true PR genius.

Not a single straight-forward/convincing win for any team in the Prem today.