Turkish Delight

Proper reality check this. Very similar to Forest last season. Enough chances to win but lacking the quality to put any away. Our midfiield and attacking play has been way too slow. I'm convinced the formation has played a part in that too

I'm expecting this to be a scrap like the game in midweek. I've watched Luton a few times this season. They don't look great but they're committed and that pitch could be bad after the weather this week. We'll win if we turn up but if the effort is off it's a banana skin. Nobody has gone there and won by more than a goal so far.

The finish reminded me of that one too (away at Stoke). It was just missing the little nutmeg before it.

The National League set up shows how skewed that can get. Teams like Kings Lynn, Bishops Stortford, Gloucester and Hereford all play in the northern league.

On Mo's pen, Pickford has made such a big deal of those pictures on his water bottle and going where the taker usually shoots that he'd made it obvious he was staying centre before the kick was taken. Mo will have known that.

Picked Anfield v United but I'm not that picky really. Last day v Wolves this year would be nice after it not working out the last two times.

I was stupid enough to be conned by him when I voted him as leader. I ditched my membership a while back and won't even be voting for labour when the election comes round now. His initial promises were something I could get behind but it's clear he's a man of no substance or integrity. If you remove the label of the party name he's just a continuation of the status quo.

The Premier League need to show they can police themselves after threats of government intervention in the past. They can't take on anyone with unlimited funds to hold them up in a legal process so Everton could represent the example they need to demonstrate it.

I'm far from being in the doom and gloom camp after today. We didn't play great but a point there isn't a terrible return and our rivals will all have a tough game when they go there. Our style hasn't been well matched to Brighton for years and they seemingly only struggle when they come up against teams who concede the ball to them and go long. My expectation of this season was not a title challenge but we've had a much tougher start to the season than our rivals and are sitting in touching distance of the top. If City drop off I don't think Arsenal have the mentality to take on a competitive title race and Spurs' luck will run out soon enough. This next stretch is where we need to push on. Everton, Forest and Brentford all at home and Luton away. We need 12 from those to set us up for going to the Etihad at the end of November still around the top of league.

You're right on that. They did increase as it went on and I totally agree on him being involved in these games as well.

We looked like we didn't want to be there last night and the players probably didn't in truth. Most of the evening looked like an attempt at energy conservation. We got away with it due to their lack of quality but could have scored 4 or 5 ourselves easily. Gravenberch was MotM for me as the only player who really showed anything apart from maybe Konate. Quansah has a lot of potential and I really like his composure on the ball. He needs to be a bit more alert though as 4 or 5 times last night he let his man go and only got away with it due to their players not being very good. Still, he's a 21 year old centre half so it's to be expected.

The comma someone put between offside and goal here in the subtitles makes a big difference in the whole debate of who knew what was happening. The question before was 'The decision was offside. Are you happy with this?'. To me this Assistant VAR is saying it was an offside goal. He just seems like a yes man but when putting subtitles in someone has added a comma to make him look confused.

The fact the most senior ref in the country is telling the VAR to delay the game tells you he could have. He just chose not to.

Not usually one for coming up with songs but always think it sounds decent when the Germans sing It's a Heartache by Bonnie Tyler. "He's Szoboszlai, Dominic Szoboszlai, The Hungarian maestro, The Redmen's fucking he-e-ro" Repeat. Might just sound decent in my head but surely it's better than Whitney Houston.

1. Mario Balotelli - I never even bought the argument he was especially talented. He was just a fucking lunatic and stood out for that reason. He didn't give a shit and lacked ability. 2. Loris Karius - Constantly making mistakes and also gave an impression of not giving a fuck. Cost us a European Cup final after his mistakes threatened to get us knocked out earlier in the competition. Only keeper I've ever seen give a corner away off a goal kick. 3. Joe Cole - totally unfit when he signed for us and also didn't give a shit which showed in his performances. 4. Lazar Markovic - Slow plodder with no positive attributes. 5. Christian Poulsen - slow, ponderous and a perfect embodiment of the Hodgson team he played in.

They're low in quality but they put a proper shift in. They were first to every second ball tonight and pressed Brentford's defence into loads of mistakes. They'll be upper mid-table after their next 2 games sadly.

I expect that too. I think we'll want to get wins to wrap up winning the group early and will go a little stronger away from home initially with players properly rested in the later part of the group. If we were to lose a couple by going too weak and finished second we'd get an extra knockout round in February against a team dropping out the Champions League.

I absolutely love that they made him captain. He represents everything they are these days. An individual who's more interested in himself than his team and who gives up at the first sign of adversity. Yet his manager thinks the way to go is appointing him a leader and paying a fortune for average players to surround him just because they did ok in a Dutch league with no depth of quality. It's great to see.

I watched that. The keepers knew where he was going on most and dived the right way but couldn't get near them.

He was happy to bask in all the praise that standing up for LGBTQ rights brought him and to take the MBE that came for doing it but it's clear that was just all about his image than any cause and this interview shows that. It was nothing more than PR. I'm convinced the timing of this car crash interview is because Southgate was made to feel so uncomfortable for picking him in the squad last week. He won't be going to those Euros next year as there's nothing the FA likes less than a bit of bad press themselves.

Russo had a 5 to 10 yard headstart on the goalscorer for the Spanish goal and couldn't be arsed sprinting with her. She wouldn't have much right to complain.

The way they pay and how it's accounted for on the books is different. He's on an 8 year contract so his transfer fee will appear on their books at an eighth of the overall fee in each of those years.

They aren't. They're amortising deals over long terms and have sold players too. They've basically took a 140 odd million a year commitment over the next 7 or 8 years on their balance sheet but have took in transfer fees that appear on there in full right now. On their p+l for this year they'll actually show a positive balance for this year as transfers out will show in full and they'll only take 1/8th of transfer fees out. That will pass Premier League FFP (maybe not UEFA's). It's a gamble on the future. If they all turned out shite they'd be in a hole. If not, then it will sustain.

Haha It was more a tenuous wrestling reference. Turns out he is though!

The lad's a giant.