rogerbarton

Part of me thinks Rafa is punishing Mitro for that back heel & he might learn from it. But how many games has he started since Benitez got here? Don't think he fancies him at the moment. Two other forgotten men - when did we last see Murphy or Gamez on the bench? Anyway, happy days. Ipswich at home next, who scored 20% of their goals tonight (total is 10 in 13 games) ?

Maradona had a slightly different spin on Rafa halfway through his tenure: "Napoli should have stuck with Benitez. The fact he's at Real Madrid now proves how good he is." Don't forget, this is the guy who also thought Jonas was Argentina's best player in 2010. So he's not always wrong

Barney Ronay penned an interesting piece on Mourinho last year as the Chelsea disaster unfolded. The gist was that most managers have a ten year life cycle for (lots of) success. Think Capello, van Gaal, Lippi, Sacchi, Shankly, Sven, Wenger? etc. Ferguson and Trapattoni being obvious exceptions (though the latter began management aged 35 with Milan). Here's the article. On the whole the one thing I thought it lacked was to get to grips with why the 10 year cycle might be a thing generally. (Though it does try to look at Mourinho's problems at the time.)

Disagree on Bruce at Villa. I think exactly what they needed was one of the old guard to rescue them from long-term malaise. They've been pretty dismal since 2010/11 and that's been in extra-sharp focus over the past 18 months or so. I could see an exciting, young but unproven manager go in and become gripped by the losing culture and jettisoned too soon. Bruce is actually not bad. Streets ahead of McClaren in terms of getting a club promoted or keeping them in the PL. Let's take a look at his CV (I'm skipping short spells at Huddersfield and Palace for expediency)... Birmingham - gets them promoted to the PL for first time in 16 years, stay up for two years (12th and 13th), relegated in third season. Stays with them in Championship, then leaves after they are promoted in first season back Wigan - keeps them up in PL in his first season, guides them to 11th in his second season Sunderland - leads them to 13th in his first season and 10th in second season (they've never matched that since!). Sacked in 2011/12 with club 16th in November Hull - gets them promoted at first attempt from Championship, guides them to 16th in first PL year, relegated in second season on last day. Promoted via play-offs in first season back in the Championship, at which point he leaves *** So he's never failed to get a team promoted from the Championship and has been relegated twice (both with clubs you wouldn't count as traditional PL clubs, and both times he brought them straight back up). Has survived relegation in 7 of his 9 PL seasons. Actually his CV has impressed me more than I would have thought. Given the pedigree of clubs he's managed, he's done pretty well.

They do look like they may be beyond rescue this year. Particularly without their customary 4-6 points off us. How long will they stick with Moyes? They might be best off investing in a long-term solution like him, even if it means relegation this year.

I'm not sure that is how support is meant to work... I'm living nearest Arsenal's stadium at the moment for work, but I'd be damned if I brought up a 'Gooner'.

Agreed. Catching up on 2009/10 cumulative points total too. Back then we had 27 points from 12 games, this time 25. However, we were about to lose two in a row to Forest and Scunthorpe leaving us with 27 from 14. I should add we then won the next 7 in a row after that

Huddersfield 1-0 down in the derby against Sheff Weds. Would leave us 2nd.

Some of those passes yesterday. Ian Holloway actually picked out some great moments from him on EFL Goals. You can look at the two beauties for the first two, but the understanding with Gayle for the third was a beauty too. He's clearly an 'in the zone' type of player though - I think we can remember some of his anonymous performances last season. Hopefully he'll remain Rafa'd if we go up.

Got a stomach bug apparently...

Lovely stuff. This'll do. Expected a much nervier affair tbh

Glad to see Ayoze playing number 10 rather than Diame.

Let's put them to the sword now.

Let's wait to get the facts. Nothing he's previously done has suggested a bad attitude and there were 9 arrested. It's quite possible that not all 9 caught up in the brawl were responsible.

Gonna be honest, I don't think any of them should be near the England squad.

Where would we have got to if they'd backed KK that summer? I remember that 8 game unbeaten streak at the end of 07/08 where we played some sumptuous stuff with the three-pronged attack.

I had to fact check that. How the hell did he get recalled in the first place?

The problem with the Euros was the 24 team format rather than just upping it to 32 (meaning those dire games like England v Slovakia / Germany v N. Ireland / France v Albania). What Fifa are proposing is a better solution, in that you won't get 3rd place teams going through as there'll be a preliminary round of 32 teams, excluding the top seeded 16. I suppose it lets countries from the likes of Asia and South America get more of a crack at it.

I haven't seen much of Huddersfield but that stat that they've not won by more than a goal is reassuring. More worrying are Brighton, just a point below us (21). I'd imagine Birmingham and Bristol City (20) will fall away a little and after them you're down to 18 already. Bottom line is we haven't really got into top gear yet. The goals are coming, it's defensively where we're struggling and I'd put faith in Rafa to sort that out. Our next seven in the league are all winnable and that would have us top going into December: Brentford (H) - currently 7th Barnsley (A) - 10th Ipswich (H) - 16th Preston (A) - 17th Cardiff (H) - 23rd Leeds (A) - 11th Blackburn (H) - 22nd

Just coming back to the 'keeper issue, Darlow was excellent today. Done enough to nail down the number one spot after the international break. Worrying for Sels if Elliot is back soon...

Presumably Darlow will keep his spot today. Does anyone think he could have done better for the Jerome goal on Weds? Definitely think this is one for two up top, but I'll again defer to Rafa's wisdom

The Twitter stuff is a joke. But he is genuinely the fourth best keeper we have on our books. I appreciate it can take some time to bed in, but he's making the entire defence look shaky and we can't afford to drop daft points the way this season has gone.

Brilliant, Fish. Couldn't have summed it up better myself. It's unbelievable to think we had a player like that just a couple of years ago. Watch that highlight reel and weep.

There was one cross at the end that was way too high & only Sels was anywhere near it. He just needed to scoop it out of the air. So, naturally, he flaps at it & punches to nowhere. He has to go now, especially given Darlow's EFL Cup performances. Overall, very frustrating. We'd have wanted more than 16 points from the first 9 games & are in the thick of the pack. Still, at least we are in that pack. And I expect we'll be better placed to continue the form longer term... Huge game now on Weds though.

If anyone believes the 'lucky manager' thing, this is the best run of cup draws I can remember. Once we're into the quarters, anything can happen.