Zoo 2.0

Two goals conceded so far this season and Michael Keane has been at fault for both of them - fucking hell. Not sure why Holgate is on the bench as if he's fit should have been included in the XI all day, the sooner we can get God Benfrey back too the better - I really can't be arsed waking up at 4am in cold sweats thinking about our defending.

Probably trying to hide the embarrassment of being found out to be a proper bang average defender. In other news, Gray is proper bright isn't he

Yerry Mina's fucking fantastic

Fair play to the referee, infuriates me how defenders pull like that in the box and 99% of the time get away with it. That's the most stonewall penalty you'll see all season so happy to see common sense prevail and a penalty given. Top finish from DCL too.

Daim, are we still doing this?!

@marcopaulo, what a blast from the past that is !

No no, he says that now - as in, he said it then and stands by it . If it was a comment made as a kid then yeah, totally agree with you (apart from the growing up bit ...)

Done that a few times and met a few players, great and easy way to meet them. You can also meet a few of the commentators as that's where Sky/BT park all their equipment lorries. It's closed now though, as the away team use the Park End car park as a changing room.

Then can curl a free kick better than Beckham and control a ball better than Maradona on the videos that you see, but what you don't see is that it probably took them more than a hundred tries to "nail it" (which you don't get in an actual game). If they were as good as Messi and Ronaldo, which their YouTube page suggests then they'd be on £500,000 a week at one of Europe's elite clubs. It's also well documented that Jeremy Lynch (one of the F2 that you allude to) has a disgraceful attitude and a massively inflated opinion of himself - famously said that he had better technique while he was in Arsenal's academy than any of the first team (who, for reference were the famous Invincibles).

Seeing DCL's clothing gave a real boost to my self esteem. I feel as though I can go the game in my D&G clothing without having to keep quiet and wispa.

No, it's one time compensation and that's all. He's literally a free agent, so nothing to do with us anymore.

I can confirm that everyone around me fell about laughing at that attempt. I've seen pass backs to the 'keeper with more venom . I do think he did well after coming on though.

Think you've jumped the gun saying that.

Hoppe this is true.

Newcastle 2-1 up to West Ham at half time but are now just five minutes away from losing 4-2. I don't think that they will go down, but it's only because there will be three teams worse than them - I don't see any real identity and a heavy reliance on individuality. Elsewhere, Harry Kane has been left out of the Spurs squad due to a "lack of fitness", Jack Grealish however gets his first start for City.

I cant think of any, he did really well from the corners as they were literally aimed at him but I don't recall a save that he had to make of note. The goal he couldn't have done much about, the lad had all the time in the world to pick his spot.

Everyone was shit in the first half but you could see he was trying to make things tick. Second half and he quite literally swung the game in our favour, I think we're really lucky in the sense that other players are rusty and we've got Charlie in hot form off the back of the Olympics. As you say, he may fatigue heavily throughout the latter stages of the season, so hopefully we have the scope to manage this by resting him when needed (as we did today).

I feel like I fell back in love with football today, it's been strange (and shit) not being at the ground and today was just electric. The ground was bouncing before KO and exactly the positive vibes that the team needed after the pandemic. Good that Benitez's reception was generally positive too - regardless of whether you want him in or not, he's here now and (IMO) it's only fair that the crowd get behind him. Weirdly enough that's the most tipsy turvy game I've ever seen too. The first half was genuinely one of the worst halves of football I've seen, whereas we absolutely played them off the park in the second and never looked like losing. First half, Michael Keane was lucky to see out the 45 as he was at fault for no more than 5 errors that I counted, I'd probably let him play against Huddersfield but the sooner we get Godfrey out of isolation the better. Holgate I also thought was poor in the first half, but to be fair was having to do his own job and mop up after his partner, much improved in the second. The main problem with the first half is that no matter what ball was on we seemed to just hoof it wide left or right towards Richarlison (who I thought was brilliant) and Townsend. Usually resulting in us losing possession with fuck all to show for it, DCL and Gray anonymous as they had fuck all to work with and quite comfortable for Southampton to defend against. Second half and we were a different team, Gray moving more out wide with Coleman and Digne playing incredibly offensive up the pitch, allowing us to use a high press and keep the ball in Southampton's half, the goal from Charlie a minute or so after KO swung the game in our favour and we never looked like letting go. Top goal from Doucoure (my MOTM) and a great finish from DCL to wrap it up. If we can keep the high tempo, offensive football coming then we may just see more wins than defeats. Not getting carried away and understand that we have mountains to climb, but back in the Old Lady today and three points to show for it. I'm made up. Edit: Totally forgot to say too, full credit to the team for doing a lap of the pitch and applauding the fans. Too often you'll see people running down the tunnel, but simply going around and showing appreciation for the fans in the ground improves the connection between fan and player which truth be told has been lacking for a few years now.

It's absolutely gash mate took me two attempts and most of half time to send my post about the first half !

Some boos, but drowned out by cheers. I'd say 80/20 positive, at least from where I'm sitting and from what I could hear.

This is going exactly as expected, just surprised that Southampton didn't score sooner. We've been absolutely shite in every department, our plan seems to be twatting the ball either left or right and just hoping for the best, the midfield is being bypassed and the front two might aswell not be there. Micheal Keane has been caught out five times (and that's just me counting, might be more). Booing at half time and everyone around me is fed up as fuck, madness how we're only 45 minutes into the season, this is going to be shiiiiiiiiiite to sit through every other week.

Such an inspiring guy, lives and breathes the club and community that he manages - love him. Everything I would want from an Everton manager.

Take away the Arsenal badge and that's a team who's entering a nailed on relegation scrap. They just look totally shite and as I put on Twitter, it's not as though they can just sack Arteta and make things better - their squad is just so poor. Chelsea & City next, 0 points and bottom as the transfer window closes.

Started the season by drawing to Derby County who had to play their dinner lady up front and managed to get in the next round of the Carabao Cup with a penalty victory over Sheffield Wednesday, another team who have about 7 players to their name. I'm not well up on Huddersfield, but assume they're a bit shit. Hopefully means they'll just put the three goals past us ... Jokes aside, decent draw that - shouldn't be any problems.

It's a well documented rule, the Spanish are really hot on things like that for tax evasion and money manipulation purposes, I guess I could pull together a few sources if you really wanted me to, but a quick Google search would probably clarify what you need . On a slightly off topic note, as painful as it is this is Barcelona's best chance of keeping in business - they're sailing unbelievably close to the wind at the moment and even without Messi need to urgently strip players from the books.