Kid Icarus

I was just thinking last night watching Rashford that I can't think of a player where there's a bigger disparity between what I think of them off the pitch as I do on it. I really admire all of his off-field stuff, but on the field he's a really unlikeable player imo. He's not dirty or anything obviously, but he's so lazy, stroppy, and plays like he thinks he's better than he is.

Yeah, the more naive that teams are the better. It's going to be harder when the better teams clock on that they can't play their usual game at SJP.

Arsenal have the most clean sheets with 6, it's us, Man United and Palace tied on 5

Guarantee a lot of the same people who make these claims also enjoy a bit of Charlie Brookers' Screen Wipe, Gogglebox and Harry Hill's TV Burp

Also worth repeating again that despite the harder start, the injury crisis, and playing more matches, we're 2 points ahead of where we were last season. That might be due to change though, last season we won every match from week 13 to 17 and were unbeaten until week 24

Last season post that Brentford 4-0 loss they didn't look anything special but they looked a lot better than they do this season imo. They're a point ahead of where they were at this point last season, but by this point last season they had played Brighton, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Newcastle, Spurs, Chelsea, West Ham, Villa, losing only 4 matches against Brighton, Brentford, Man City, Villa, while picking up wins against Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, West Ham and draws against Newcastle and Chelsea. This season they've only played 4 out of those 9 teams - Spurs, Arsenal, Man City, Brighton and lost all of them handedly. They're Man United and they're often incredibly spawny, but last season it didn't look as bumbling as it does this season when I've seen them. They're not as bad as Spurs were last season for being absolutely shit yet still picking up points, but they feel like they're much more in that territory than they were last season.

Maybe, but I think their fixture list is undeniably harder than ours. We have Man United, Fulham, Forest at home, with Everton, Spurs, Luton away, they have Chelsea, Bournemouth, Villa at home, with Newcastle, Liverpool, West Ham, Forest away. Both their home and away fixtures are tougher, but especially their away games.

Similar to you, they haven't really had a tough run of games yet (or at least haven't come out the other side of them with points, unlike Villa). Fair to say that yesterday was your biggest test you've had and passed this season? Both yours and Man United's December looks tough.

Yeah, they've lost handidly against every good team they've faced, plus Palace. You look at their results and 6th seems crazy.

Coming in your goals!

Taking injuries out of it, which is obviously a big caveat, for me the strongest teams this season outside of Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool are us and Villa on equal footing (our form since each of our managers came in is almost identical) then Spurs and Man United who are inconsistent and liable to embarrassment but somehow always stick around. One thing's for sure, everything is still wide open. Honestly for me, I'm biased, but all clubs with their full strength squads available, I'd go as far as saying we're right up there and probably about the 3rd best in the league.

That's woeful from Everton

Man United are the Spurs of last season, they'll fall apart, it's just a matter of time.

Pen like, but you could just about interpret it as Martial buying it.

Ref has been absolutely shite and all in Man United's favour.

Yeah their December features us, Chelsea, Liverpool, West Ham, Villa. And Bayern in the CL.

Fucking hell, so wasteful

Fucking hell, can't finish for toffees ?

Absolute joke like, he didn't just knock it away either, he hoofed it.

Funny thing I remember about that Rooney overhead is that up until he did that he was having an absolute stinker of a match.

Yeah I just mean some refs let them get away with it when they shouldn't

Thought the ref was card happy like, but overall not terrible. Those little kicks away are sometimes yellows sometimes not. They're petty but I think I lean towards them being yellows because ultimately the team who's got the free kick has the advantage and stopping free kicks being taken should be a yellow.

Think Everton will be well up for it today after everything that's happened. If there's one team you want to play when you're in that mood it's Man United like. Spurs Villa draw and an Everton win would be ideal.

This reminds me of this lass I fancied for years in my 20s but always managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with. I used to dream about her but most of the time even in my dreams I used to fuck it up or she'd just say no.

51 with Leno, Watkins and Udogie to play