Dynamite

The whole team selection just screamed of "well, the lad has played in that position once before so he can do it again". Carrick needed to be in midfield, the first half was screaming out for someone like him to be picking out the killer passes. Park in central midfield is something we try far too much and never to much success at all. Keep Rafael at right back and Valencia on the wing please. Never been much of a fan of Welbeck on the wing either, just feel it doesn't get much out of him. I was half expecting Berba to be in defence again like against Leeds! We didn't have much options with the lack of defenders and midfield but we weren't good enough and just didn't deserve the three points today.

Marco Boogers! Made two appearances for West Ham and, in the second one, he was on for about two minutes, got a red card for fouling Gary Neville and apparently went off to live in a dutch caravan!

10 on Spurs and Stoke ACC 10 on Norwich and Bolton/Wolves Draw ACC GG: Bolton vs. Wolves

10 on Stoke and Sunderland/Everton Draw ACC 10 on Newcastle/Bolton Draw, Liverpool and Man City ACC GG: West Brom/Man City

Brazilian Ronaldo? Ronaldinho? Both were ridiculously talented and everyone loved to watch them play even when they were destroying your team (Ronaldo getting a standing ovation when he scored a hat-trick against us at Old Trafford, the Madrid fans did the same to Ronaldinho too). Other than that, maybe some sort of consummate professional like Maldini?

13 on Newcastle and Everton ACC 7 on Villa/Liverpool Draw and Wolves -1 ACC GG: Man City/Arsenal

What is going on with Fletcher? Hasn't started a match for a few weeks and isn't on the bench today. Is it still that 'mystery illness'?

It was pretty much the reason I didn't get a season ticket. For the past few years United have played around 11 home cup games a season which, if repeated this year, would have meant something like £400 on top of your original season ticket price (which aren't cheap themselves!). They had no choice but to make the Europa League an 'opt-out' competition but it'll either lead to quite a few empty seats or the club making a lot of money off the ridiculously expensive general sale prices. My guess is it'll be the latter one.

10 on Fulham and Sunderland/Blackburn Draw ACC 10 on Norwich/Newcastle Draw and Villa GG: Arsenal/Everton

If we do buy a midfielder in January (I personally don't think we will), it won't be a Sneijder-type player. It'll be somebody that is either defensive minded or a box-to-box player, who can do well in a midfield two, and that is good physically. For all the talk of 'replacing Scholes' these past few years, we've really needed a new Roy Keane. I doubt we'll see anyone bought, instead it'll probably be Phil Jones stepping up into midfield when needed.

Yeah, anybody who hasn't watched it should track it down. I found it really enjoyable. Great writing to make such an unlikely scenario seem so possible.

Local businessman Mike Ashley wants to take over Everton...

West Ham

10 on Arsenal and Blackburn ACC 10 on Chelsea and QPR/WBA Draw ACC GG: QPR vs. WBA

I can't remember ever seeing as sad a moment in football as Shay Given crying at the end of the silence.

Fucking hell, that came out of nowhere. Suicide? Just awful news to hear. RIP.

It'll go in Bruce's favour that the league is still pretty tight. They are 4 points away from being bottom but also only 5 points away from 8th. Just looking at the fixture list and their next two games are Wolves and Blackburn which they should really be getting points out of. If they don't then they'll be in trouble but personally I'd say it's too early to get rid of him yet.

So SAF just retired after winning two consecutive Champions Leagues and finishing second in the league both years too. So who is going to replace him? Either Alex McCleish (has got sacked by both Villa and Newcastle in the two years), the still unemployed Bob Bradley, Dougie Freedman (who got sacked from Palace in the first season for finishing 21st) and the favourite, recently sacked David Moyes. Are there seriously no good managers who would want to take over the best team in Europe for the past two years?!

Spurs

10 on Stoke/Blackburn Draw and Sunderland ACC 10 on Norwich/QPR Draw GG: Norwich vs. QPR

I've been noticing a few odd stuff pop up in messages like that. Most recent one I spotted was when Mike Phelan went from Man Utd assistant manager to QPR boss and somehow Stockport (the team he was with before United) received compensation.

Man City

Somehow my 'new Heskey' is now the 'new Carlton Cole'. Can't decide whether this is an improvement or not.

So, amongst my new youth intake, we have the new Anton Ferdinand and the new Emile Heskey! The future is bright for Southampton!

10 on Everton and Sunderland-Fulham Draw ACC 10 on Stoke/QPR Draw GG: Chelsea/Liverpool