Gert & TheBoy's Official VNA Soccer... err Football Thread

[Gert-Jan]

Ramilles, if you're playing the Fantasy Premier League game, feel free to add yourself using the following code: 56744-39796.

I came across a very long and excellent in-depth article for those who aren't too familiar with Guardiola yet....
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/ ... ohn-stones

If I were Pep and I had seen this compilation video, I would also instantly buy Stones; the ultimate modern-day centre-back.

[Ramilles]

Just joined the league - looks like 6 of us now - I firmly expect to be challenging for last place lol

[rokkerr]

.... and putting Mahrez and Vardy on my fantasy team just played out brilliantly :(

[Ramilles]

If it's any consolation I'm feeling your pain.

Should have joined the NFL one as well. At least I'd have the genuine excuse that I know feck all about that game!

[TheBoy]

What struck me most about the three games I watched live - Hull v Leicester, Everton v Spurs and City v Sunderland - is that how much of a pre-season game feel they had to them, especially for the three favourites. I was mightily surprised to see Leicester line up with both Grey and Musa starting ahead of two of the biggest work-horses who helped drive them to the league title in Albrighton and Okazaki. Plus the addition of King in central midfield which put pressure on Drinkwater to cover more of the Kante role. And of course with the enforced change of Hernandez in to replace the suspended Huth, it meant 4 big changes to the Leicester 11 who remained virtually unchanged for 38 games last season.

As exciting as the blistering pace of Gray, Vardy, Musa and Mahrez is, if I was a Leicester fan, I'd have been pretty angry at Ranieri for starting with them all in the first game of the season. Especially with the other key personnel changes.

It added up to a pretty disjointed performance and with Hull's tribulations knitting them together in determination, showed the sort of dogged determination that Leicester had last year.

Spurs, as I have mentioned previously had the sort of pre-season that as a fan makes you pull your hair out in frustration. Yes it was pretty much the same first choice 11 as last season, just with Wanyama in for the suspended Dembele, but in terms of rekindling that level of unity, they have only had around 45 minutes together in the first half v Inter which was played over a week ago. And even then, Wanyama was unable to partner Dier due to a Visa cock-up. It resulted in a very disjointed first half performance that saw Everton deservedly lead. The second half and in particular the introduction of Janssen sprung us into life and allowed us to dominated for most of the final half hour. Lamela - I said I expected him to have a great season - and he got off the mark with a rare header. Janssen could have won it but for a fine Stekelenberg close range save, but in the end I think the draw was fair and hopefully this can be defined as our final pre-season game!

City meanwhile showed off all of Pep's tactical initiatives and gave a glimpse into what we can expect to see ahead. New signing Stones partnered full back Kolarov in central defence, Silva lined up as a deeper lying midfielder and went with three behind Aguero in Sterling, De Bruyne and Nolito. But as the game played it it quickly became clear that the players had no real set positions, with them often switching around. As the somewhat fortunate 2-1 result suggests, it may take the City players a bit of time to get used to this system and freedom, but once it clicks, we should see some very exciting football from them.

So yes, pre-season seems to be the theme still, which I have to say I find baffling in this era with the amount of sports science and fitness data coaches have these days that they can go into a new season looking unprepared. With the added uncertainty of a number of potential transfers, this could be a familiar theme for another few games yet.

Great to see so many in the VNA Fantasy Football league!

[Gert-Jan]

Leicester City got off to a bad start and it ain't even that much of a surprise. The Foxes are magnificent on the counter-attack and they have hurt every big team last year with 36% possession and rushes from Vardy, Mahrez, Okazaki. However, when these type of players face teams that are going to sit deep and defend, Leicester are suddenly confrontated with a wall as big as the one that seperated the city of Berlin until 1989. Guys like Musa, Gray and Vardy need space to run in, if there is none, Italian Ranieri clearly doesn't have a plan B. Having said that, Vardy could've scored a couple goals in the first half. Still, I expect them to have a very difficult season, though Hull City deserve a big thumbs up and they don't seem as bad as I had expected. Very impressed with Snodgrass! If other teams also embrace Hull's defensive approach when facing Leicester, the champs will suffer plenty more defeats.

The expectations regarding Manchester City and Guardiola have reached insane heights and therefore it is somewhat normal to see how they were struggling in front of the home crowd. I felt David Moyes made a mistake by substituting his most valuable player, Defoe, for defender McNair after the former had netted the equaliser. That goal made City put even more pressure on Sunderland's defence and with a man like Defoe, who could be back in the national team now that Allardyce is in charge, they would've had the pace to hurt MCFC on the break. New signing at right-back Donald Love looked awful, but overall I think Sunderland were pretty solid and they'll collect enough points to stay clear from the drop zone. The Sky Blues, meanwhile, will need time to feel comfortable with the new manager's innovative ideas about football and I agree with Drew that once they click, English footy fans will witness things Spaniards and Germans have seen up close over the last 7 years.

Joe Hart's distribution doesn't match Guardiola's standards and news broke on Friday night that he was gonna axe the England international and start with Caballero between the posts. It's just temporary, though, as I think Man City will sign a Barcelona keeper - Claudio Bravo or Marc-Andre Ter Steegen?

Whatever Chelsea and West Ham give us tonight, the thriller between Arsenal and Liverpool will for sure be the most spectacular Gameweek 1 showdown. Just think about it, the cracking Coutinho free-kick, Mane's sensational dribble and brilliant finish in the top corner, Oxlade-Chamberlain's stunning goal; all in a truly fantastic game and it was only the third time since 2000 that Liverpool won away at Arsenal! The opening set of fixtures are tough with 4 out of 6 away from home, but if lads like Mane, Coutinho, Lallana and Wijnaldum can also deliver this kind of performances against the weaker teams, Jurgen Klopp could genuinely revive Liverpool's title hopes.

I remember picking up 26 points in my first week of fantasy football last year, so 61 with Hazard still to play is a pretty decent start of the new campaign, lol. So far I'm happy with my decision to ignore Leicester entirely and opt for both Aguero and Zlatan up front. I realize those two take up about 25% of my budget, but I'm content with my mid-priced midfielders of whom Lamela and Redmond scored a goal and earned bonus points. Also, Boro's Ramirez looked dangerous against Stoke and was unfortunate not to get amongst the goals. Swansea and WBA were the only two teams keeping a clean sheet.

Granit Xhaka and Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the bench..?!

[rokkerr]

Of to a rousing start....

[TheBoy]

It's going to be pretty interesting finding out where Joe Hart finds himself over the next couple of weeks. He's most strongly linked with Everton, but after they already signed Stekelenburg who is seemingly the new number one and also have a promising backup in Robles, would they really want to sign another keeper on high wages? The other team I have seen linked are Liverpool and I could kinda see that making sense. They also signed a new 'keeper in the summer, but I'm not so sure he would have a strong claim on the number 1 spot, even if he wasn't injured.

I'd be surprised if any high profile foreign teams came in for him, especially Dortmund who I've seen mentioned.

And will it be a loan or a full transfer? And if so, what sort of transfer fee would City demand? I have to say, I'm pretty surprised that Pep is so quickly pushing Hart out of the door. It's not like City need to sell and can happily afford to keep an expensive player on the bench for a season. Especially as Hart fulfils the most important of his qualities: being English. I'm not sure on City's current homegrown quotas, but I'd be pretty confident in saying they are constantly on the borderline of meeting the requirements.

I was pleased with my start to Fantasy Football but kinda disappointed to only get a handful of extra points after the Saturday games. Fabregas totally scuppered me by not playing as I thought he was going to be a key midfielder this season for both myself and Chelsea! I certainly got that wrong lol. Keeping an injured Lukaku in my team was always a gamble, but was happy to do so with Fabregas on the bench to come on. Still, I'm happy keeping Lukaku as I think he'll score plenty for Everton and if he gets a move to Chelsea, is very cheap for their main striker.

Naturally Fabregas has had to be my transfer out. You can probably take a good guess at who I brought in ;) I originally planned on taking out Mahrez after Leicester's game v Hull, but the Fabregas situation has forced my hand!

On the subject of Mahrez, he has put an end to any transfer speculation by signing a new 4 year deal with the Foxes and apparently there is no buyout clause. Evidentally Mahrez took the speculation linking him with Arsenal seriously and quickly signed a new contract just in case they came in with a bid ;)

Finally, going back to Fantasy Football: Remember that this Friday sees the first ever Friday night Premier League game between Manchester United and Southampton, which means the deadline to make any transfers or team changes is Friday at 19:00 GMT!

[Gert-Jan]

Liverpool and Crystal Palace have finally reached an agreement for Benteke. The Belgian moves to Selhurt Park for an estimated £27m/€32m and I think this is an excellent deal for club and player. Pardew really needed to do something as this week saw both Bolasie and Jedinak move elsewhere, so to now sign a proven goalscorer is a huge boost for Palace. There may be a lack of match fitness, but Benteke will get them 15-20 goals. To stay on the subject of Liverpool, I don't think Danny Ings will get a lot of minutes and it wouldn't surprise me if he were to leave too. It's pretty clear that Firmino, Sturridge and Origi are Klopp's preferred striker options with the Brazilian as false nine in 4-3-3 and either Sturridge or Origi up top in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Arsenal manager Wenger said in the weekly presser that his club is ready to spend money. It has been a week and still no new centre-back or striker and I reckon Lacazette's price has gone up significantly after netting a hattrick for Lyon. There's already frustration and anger amongst fans and things will only get worse in case they lose at the King Power Stadium where they meet Leicester. The Foxes only lost on 3 occassions last season, though were beaten twice by Arsenal! I do fancy Leicester getting something out of this game, though, with Vardy and Mahrez running into the space behind Arsenal's defence. Will Wenger choose Chambers and Holding again or will he rush Koscielny back?

I don't think there's a more passionate manager than Antonio Conte and Chelsea look somewhat revitalised. He has the squad depth to switch formations when needed and I, too, was surprised to see Fabregas not even being handed a couple minutes on Monday. The midfield options, particularly Hazard, make a football fan's mouth water and should Diego Costa get sent off, which will undoubtedly happen at some point, Conte has a great back-up striker with Batshuayi. The match against Watford could be one with a lot of goals as the Hornets were ranked very high for shots conceded and that was just against Southampton.

Paul Pogba is expected to make his "debut" tonight at Old Trafford. Man City and on-fire forward Aguero will be traveling to Stoke following the impressive demolition of Steaua Bucharest. Tottenham's Kane hopes to get on the scoresheet and West Ham are up against Bournemouth at the Olympic Stadium!

Joe Hart... my money is on a loan move to Everton, but we'll know for sure in 11 days.

[Gert-Jan]

I had to make a choice on Saturday as the PL clash between Leicester and Arsenal coincided with Barcelona's opening match of the season. In all honesty, it only took me about 2 seconds to decide which one I was gonna watch, lol. Barca!! Picture me giving a standing ovation, clapping my hands and screaming out loud; no - unfortunately I was not at the Camp Nou, it was just something I felt like doing in my own house whilst sitting in front of the telly. An exceptional masterclass was given by the greatest footballer(s) in the world. Suarez and Messi were truly brilliant!

The Argentine may have undergone a metamorphosis with his blonde hair and the kind of beard even our very own Walt would be jealous of, Messi's dribbling and passing technique was perhaps even better than from what we've seen the past 10 years. Unbelievably good! Combine that with Luis El Pistolero Suarez, who netted yet another hattrick, and you know Barca are title favorites in La Liga.

The goalkeeper merry-go-round has begun as clubs have agreed a deal for Claudio Bravo. The Chile stopper moves to Man City with Cillessen going from Ajax to Barcelona where he will play second fiddle behind Ter Steegen. Tim Krul, meanwhile, is expected to sign a new deal with Newcastle, but will go to Ajax on a season-long loan to help the Amsterdam side out in their desperate search for a new goalie.

Frank de Boer lost his first match in charge of Inter away at Chievo Verona which finished 9th last season. The Italian media described Sunday night's performance as "shocking and embarrassing" and De Boer mentioned something about needing time to build a team and work on the fitness levels, etc. I sure hope he knows what he got himself into, cause the really sad thing is that a few more of these defeats could see him get sacked before Christmas, lol.

AC Milan won 3-2 courtesy of a Carlos Bacca hattrick, whilst Juventus signing Higuain was responsible for the decisive strike in the game against Fiorentina (2-1). AS Roma were the most impressive, though, with captain Strootman showing that he is currently Holland's best midfielder and I expect big things from him in the World Cup qualifying campaign that's due to start soon.

Aguero and Zlatan dominated the news as both world-class strikers notched two goals for their respective clubs. Chelsea fought themselves past Watford, though Diego Costa was the main talking point again as his dive was certainly gold medal worthy and perhaps also a second booking? Liverpool lost at Turf Moor despite having 81% possession and I think West Ham should give all their fans a refund after a very poor display from the Hammers. What's up with all their injuries?! Anyway, in a nutshell, English football was quite dull this weekend.

Drew, what do you like most.... Kane dropping a bit deeper in the number 10 role and Janssen up front or Kane on 9 with Lamela, Eriksen and Alli behind him?

[rokkerr]

... CL draw..

[rokkerr]

Well so far I suck...

[wshandcock]

Well so far I suck...

third place not bad for the Yank

[Gert-Jan]

It is impressive the way Pep Guardiola starts working at a club and within no time they are playing a totally different style of football. I had some doubts before the start of the season, but especially the first 60 minutes on Sunday were extremely impressive with a super dominant City going 2-0 up in the early stages against a very poor West Ham. You can't maintain that intensity level throughout the entire match, so you automatically tend to take your foot off of the gas pedal; we even see Barcelona doing that. Nonetheless, this City side has got tremendous potential and all credit must go to Guardiola. He has given Sterling confidence and an end product, the heatmap shows Stones often in midfield linking up well with Silva and now they also have a great goalkeeper with Claudio Bravo, whose distribution skills have been evident in Chile's national team and his years in Spain. Bring on the Manchester derby!

Antonio Conte's Chelsea have picked up 9 points too, but in a somewhat more defensive manner as City. You can tell their manager is Italian and N'Golo Kante's clears, blocks and interceptions catch the eye in midfield. It gives attacking players like Hazard much needed freedom to excel on the break and cause problems. The Belgian is seemingly back to his best and he could have easily scored a hattrick against Burnley. Anyone who watched that game will have recognized the moments of brilliance and with no European football distractions, Chelsea are undoubtedly the biggest threat for both Manchester clubs.

Palace, Bournemouth, Watford, Stoke, Sunderland have all been pretty awful so far.

West Brom's Tony Pulis said in his post match comments after the Middlesbrough game that he wants to get 5 new players of which Nacer Chadli is the first one. The former Spurs man moves to the Hawthorns for a club record fee of €15m. Southampton, meanwile, have signed winger Sofiane Boufal on a €20m deal from Lille. Man City goalkeeper Joe Hart is off to Italy as he joins Torino on a season-long loan. Striker Paco Alcácer will go from Valencia to Barcelona! Many more transfers expected with deadline day approaching fast and domestic leagues will go on a break as the World Cup qualifying campaign gets underway next weekend.

[TheBoy]

Have I missed anything...

It's everyone's favourite day of the year! Transfer Deadline Day! Spending in the Premier League has already passed £1Billion for the first time ever and the spending is showing no signs of stopping as clubs try to waste, I mean spend every last penny of their huge TV deal.

Current transfers in progress are:
Jack Wilshere on loan to either Crystal Palace or Bournemouth (my money would be on Palace)
Mousa Sissoko from Newcastle to Spurs for an hilarious £30m (although Spurs are thankfully baulking at this price and have 'cooled their interest')
Isco possibly on loan to Spurs but Malaga seems the more likely destination.
Slimani to Leicester for £30m
Wilfried Bony on loan to Stoke (worth keeping an eye on for Fantast Football reasons) ;)
Chelsea emerged last night to be attempting to resign David Luiz from PSG for £32m but PSG are demanding £40m - what a bizarre transfer if that comes off!
Loic Remy has already joined Palace on loan

I'm sure there many more in progress but those stand out for me right now. You may have spotted a pattern of transfers in the £30m region which somehow seems to have become the 'standard' fee for any major transfer this summer!

Let me try and catch up a little on previous posts...

I think all the English clubs will be very happy with their Champions League draws. Leicester will certainly fancy their chances, meanwhile Spurs could have had a much tougher challenge ahead and I'd say it would be a big disappointment if we failed to at least qualify from the group. Arsenal and City face old foes in the shape of PSG and Barca, but should still be looking to challenge for top spot in the group.

With regards to Spurs, I have to say how much of an impact Janssen has made - he's been key in all three games for various reasons in us picking up positive results. As for dropping Kane deep, I'm not a fan. He's not a number 10 and I feel it's more of a detriment to the overal team pushing him there just to keep him on the pitch. It's almost another Rooney situation. The problem is, Kane is still suffering a poor run of form. And so for me I'd have no problems in dropping him and allowing Janssen to start up front as the main striker for a few games. Spurs' big problem so far this season has been the poor form of Eriksen and Alli (along with Kane who was our worst player v Liverpool). There are rumours that Eriksen is close to leaving due to only having 2 years left on his contract and whilst most people expect him to sign a new deal, the uncertainty does seem to be affecting his game. Meanwhile Alli still hasn't learnt to calm down and find the form of last season. With those two key players off form - and badly off form - it's putting more pressure on Kane to find something out of nothing and then leads to shuffling the team to bring Janssen in along with Kane.

Hopefully things will all get sorted out, but it needs to happen fast as I get the feeling being left behind even at this early stage will be very tough to come back from.

Right now I'm concerned about us getting at least 3 players in as we've been rather reckless in selling squad players like Chadli and Mason without seemingly any cast iron plans to replace them...

Kind of satisfied with how Fantasy Football has started. Very annoyed at having to play my Wildcard before the international break which is when I prefer to use it if necessary. I'm pleased to have got both Aguero and Ibra into my starting lineup, however it's looking like Aguero could be facing a 3 match ban for an elbowing incident in the weekend's match vs West Ham. It'll be a blow as his price will almost certainly drop meaning you have to get him out in order to capitalise on the bank balance gains when bringing him back in, plus of course find a second striker!

The slight problem at this early stage is that teams have become very 'template' with most teams having the same 7-8 players, which is making it hard to find those 3-4 who are different who will pick up points. Early days though and a long way to go! Players like Ozil, Sanchez, Mane have all started to make themselves known and fitting them in will take some squad balancing.

Gert has had a tremendous start!

[Gert-Jan]

One of the most entertaining deadline days in a long time....

No less than 13 (!) clubs broke their transfer record this summer and all Premier League teams combined spent £1.165bn.

• Joe Hart: Man City ~~> Torino
• Wilfried Bony: Man City ~~> Stoke
• Samir Nasri: Man City ~~> Sevilla
• Eliaquim Mangala: Man City ~~> Valencia
• Didier NDong: Lorient ~~> Sunderland (£13.6m)
• Jeff Hendrick: Derby County ~~> Burnley (Club record fee of £10.5m)
• Marcos Alonso: Fiorentina ~~> Chelsea (£23m)
• Calum Chambers: Arsenal ~~> Middlesbrough
• Nigel De Jong: LA Galaxy ~~> Galatasaray
• Georges-Kevin NKoudou: Marseille ~~> Tottenham (£9m)
• Mario Balotelli: Liverpool ~~> Olympique Nice
• Alvaro Arbeloa: West Ham (Free agent)
• Islam Slimani: Sporting Lisbon ~~> Leicester (Club record fee of £29m)
• Bruno Martins Indi: Porto ~~> Stoke
• David Luiz: PSG ~~> Chelsea (£34m and the Brazilian traveled from Paris to London with the Eurostar train, lol.)
• Jason Denayer: Man City ~~> Sunderland
• James Weir and Will Keane: Man United ~~> Hull City
• Allan Nyom: Watford ~~> West Brom
• Yevhen Konoplyanka: Sevilla ~~> Schalke
• Gokhan Inler: Leicester ~~> Besiktas
• Jack Wilshere: Arsenal ~~> Bournemouth (on loan)
• Juan Cuadrado: Chelsea ~~> Juventus (3-year loan deal, lol... #nojoke)
• Phillip Wollscheid: Stoke ~~> Wolfsburg
• Adama Traore: Aston Villa ~~> Middlesbrough (Bench fodder?)
• Moussa Sissoko: Newcastle ~~> Tottenham (Five-year deal and transfer fee of £30m... )
• Enner Valencia: West Ham ~~> Everton
• Hall Robson-Kanu: West Brom (Free agent)
• Dieumerci Mbokani: Dynamo Kiev ~~> Hull City (on loan)
• Ezequiel Garay: Zenit ~~> Valencia
• Joselu: Stoke ~~> Deportivo
• Markus Henriksen: AZ Alkmaar ~~> Hull City

Bad news as well....

• Axel Witsel's move from Russian side Zenit to Italian champions Juventus fell through one hour before the deadline.
• Mamadou Sakho decided to remain at Liverpool despite Klopp not wanting him around anymore for disciplinary reasons.
• Tony Pulis couldn't get Sporting Lisbon's William Carvalho among others.
• Everton missed out on tons of their transfer targets as Koeman really wanted Gabbiadini from Napoli as well as Brahimi from Porto.

[Gert-Jan]

The first round of World Cup qualifiers are finally behind us! England kicked off in good old fashion with a dreadful performance against Slovakia. I watched it live and couldn't stop yawning at times, but according to Allardyce - "we dominated the game" - things weren't that bad. Lots of talk again about Rooney, who is walking in areas where you don't want him, although Sam thinks differently about this one too as the manager called Rooney "brilliant" and he was further quoted as saying, "It's not up to me to tell Rooney where to play". Uhm, aren't you the boss of this team? So, captain Wayne can do whatever he wants? A lucky 95th minute strike from Lallana secured 3 points and a good start to their qualifying campaign.

The Netherlands traveled to Sweden on the back of their fifth consecutive home defeat. Our main problem is that we can't stop making individual errors and that's what cost us against Greece in a friendly last Thursday. Last night we were pretty much in control throughout the entire match, but Kevin Strootman let Marcus Berg turn and the Swede lobbed the ball over our goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet. We registered 24 attempts of which nine on target and Ajax midfielder Davy Klaassen in particular could have scored a couple goals. Ultimately, though, Sneijder got us the equalizer and seeing as our main competitor France drew 0-0 against Belarus, I guess I can live with just 1 point.

Germany and Spain have been truly outstanding in their qualifying start. The current world champions made Norway look like a bunch of amateurs in a 3-0 win with a superb display from Thomas Muller and Spain thrashed Liechtenstein 8-0 to go top of group G. Euro winners Portugal succumbed to defeat against Switzerland, whilst Scotland's Snodgrass led his country to a 5-1 victory against Malta. In South-America, Chile were held to a draw by an ultra defensive Bolivia (parking the bus tactics) and a Messi-less Argentina fought back from 2-0 down to level thanks to a header from Otamendi. More of this fun stuff in October...

Right, we can now turn our attention to the domestic leagues. Guardiola and Mourinho go head to head on Saturday lunchtime in what is quite possibly the most anticipated Manchester derby in history. I'm curious how Pep is going to fill the void left by Aguero as he sits out a 3-match ban for violent conduct. His Portugese counterpart has some concerns regarding the full-backs as Valencia doesn't return from international duty until Friday morning, 24 hours before kick-off, and Luke Shaw had to withdraw from the England squad. Mourinho rarely loses these high-profile games, so I can see 0-0 on the scoreboard after 90 minutes, although the self-proclaimed football God Zlatan will be extra motivated to beat Guardiola. This clash is definitely one not to miss, Americans better set the alarm clock.

Benteke and Remy aim to impress as Palace travel to Middlesbrough. New Stoke signing Wilfried Bony is expected to start against a so far not impressive Spurs side. Swansea City start their tough run of upcoming fixtures against a reborn Chelsea. Premier League champions Leicester travel to Liverpool where the Reds host their first game of the season at Anfield. Sunderland's relegation battle continues on Monday with Everton looking to extend their unbeaten run. I think we could be in for an exciting weekend!

Fantasy football... I have already ditched Aguero...

[TheBoy]

I pretty much gave the International games a complete miss - a wise decision me thinks ;) I did watch most of the England game, but I almost didn't bother with the second half at all and then switched off entirely after about 75 minutes. The comments by Allardyce about Rooney were startling to say the least, although by and large he appears to have pretty much got away with it and hasn't come under too much scrutiny. Maybe even the media can't be bothered to get interested in this current England set up!

Anyway, as predicted the Manchester Derby was indeed quite the thriller! Several hundred million pounds of talent in the United team and true to form, Jose decides the best tactic against a Pep team is to park the bus. Outstanding. Thankfully this tactic, whilst effective for a while was only a matter of time before it came undone. A pretty woeful bit of positioning from the much lauded Bailly allowed Kevin De Bruyne in and the Belgian finished smartly into the bottom corner. De Bruyne was imperious throughout the game, by far the best player on the pitch and will give plenty to think about for us Fantasy Football managers in how we might squeeze him in... With the goal lead, City could knock the ball around and toy with the rattled United team at will as the Pep-effect was in full show. However, I wonder if perhaps the City players are trying a little too hard to impress their manager's style as I often saw them playing rather ineffectual quick one touch passes - with a lot them backwards - when if they had just slowed down for a moment, had much better options to play dangerous attacking passes.

Still, at 2-0 City should have taken the chance to run riot and probably should have done were it not for one of the worst goalkeeping debuts I have ever seen in the Premier League. I kind of felt sorry for Bravo as it became increasingly obvious that knowing he has been brought in purely because Joe Hart's distribution is deemed not good enough, was now playing on his mind. For want of a better phrase, it seems Pep has mindfucked him into knowing he is expected to always play a short pass and never resort to booting it long. Thus when he came under heavy pressure and caused a few dangerous moments, you could see that his head had completely gone.

That the game only finished at 2-1 with no second half goals was some minor miracle, but I think it's safe to say the scrutiny that Bravo will be under from opposing teams in the next few weeks will be something to very much keep an eye on.

I can finally talk positively about Tottenham! I think I mentioned previously that these opening few games of the season have almost felt like our 'real' pre-season. With so many key first team players hardly kicking a ball before the season kicked off, it's been something of a slow start. But yesterday was like watching the very best of last season once again. I'm always loath to judge a team or players on a single game and so I'm not getting too carried away with the 4-0 demolition of Stoke. This is especially true as Stoke have been in dreadful form and have shipped 4 goals several times over the past 10 games. Still, the fact we also stuffed them in fine fashion should hopefully show we are looking in much better form and can take that into the upcoming games. Dele Alli was superb, Eriksen after signing his new contract looked like a new signing and Kane got the monkey off his back by netting the sort of goal that any striker loves to gobble up. Kyle Walker was close to being my man of the match too as he put in a masterclass performance of how to play as a full back. The return of Son was the biggest bonus though as he got himself 2 goals with excellent finishes and teed up Kane for his tap in.

With players like Sisssoko, Lamela and Janssen on the bench, it's also a good sign that our squad depth is looking much healthier. Plus of course we have the return of one Mousa Dembele to look forward to:

Liverpool continued their dangerous form to the season with a demolition job of their own on Champions Leicester winning 4-1. Leicester are starting to worry me somewhat as they are struggling to find anything like last season's form. They don't seem to have the same fight in them and once they went a goal or two down yesterday, never looked even remotely like turning things around like they did in several key games last season from similar scorelines. Hopefully they get a good result in the Champions League on Wednesday otherwise I fear they might start to spiral in a really bad run of form.

And speaking of the Champions League - lots to look forward to next week! Spurs will break the British attendance record for a 'home' Champions League game as 86,000 tickets are sold for our game v Monaco at Wembley Stadium, which is very exciting indeed!

Swansea v Chelsea to look forward to today followed by Sunderland v Everton on Monday before we can get into the European games though. And two games in which our Fantasy teams will have a keen interest in! Gert with Hazard as his captain and the dangerous Costa, meanwhile I've pinned my hopes firmly onto Everton with Lukaku as my captain backed up by Bolasie and Williams. I've certainly had a lucky week so far with Capoue netting and assisting a goal, whilst Kyle Walker did me proud with an assist and clean sheet.

[rokkerr]

Mahrez... you are killing me... I'd trade him but my luck he will break out this year next week.
I had Costa all year last year... so I dumped him this year.. and of course he is doing better this year..

Gert.. you are human?

[Gert-Jan]

I was expecting a comment like that, haha. My team actually racked up 71, 70 and 51 points in the first three Gameweeks prior to the international break and now all of them just had an off-day. You know what they say about FPL; it's a marathon, not a sprint. The majority of my players have form and good fixtures, so I'm not worried at all.

It sure was an exciting PL weekend indeed. Callum Wilson's back-heel goal against Pulis' resilient West Brom, Son's explosive top corner strike in Spurs' demolition of Stoke, Payet's brilliant rabona assist to give Antonio another goal, a Manchester derby that totally lived up to the expectation, the defensive capitulation of West Ham at the hands of Watford, Palace's first victory of the season, Everton's flying start after Lukaku's 11-minute hattrick and Leicester were outclassed by Jurgen Klopp's Duracell bunnies.

Manchester City have been outstanding thus far and the first 40 minutes of the derby against United were of a frightening high level. The Sky Blues dominated the game and Guardiola's possession play wil always automatically push the opposition back into their own penalty area. I personally don't feel it was United's intention to just stick with defending, it is City which pushed them into that role combined with a lack of focus from several United players. Claudio Bravo may have gotten some criticism, but the first goal was exemplary for what Pep asks of his goalkeepers and I think Stones was more at fault when City condeded a goal right before half-time. United have significant aerial threat and they love putting crosses into the box, but City are the far better footballing team. Very impressive stuff!

I have always rated Andre Marriner as one of the worst referees in the league, even more so after he sent off the wrong Arsenal player a couple years ago. This man was responsible for Chelsea dropping two points at Swansea on Sunday as Gary Cahill was fouled by Leroy Fer yet the referee completely missed the incident and allowed the goal to stand. The Blues were in charge of the game and Costa managed to get his fourth goal and third booking in only four matches. I can see Conte making changes in defence on Friday... some good options at his disposal with Marcos Alonso and David Luiz. Or perhaps play with three at the back?

What's the story behind Stoke City's alarmingly awful performances? Is it all due to the absence of Butland or...?? I mean, they have a pretty decent midfield with the likes of Allen, Arnautovic, Bojan and Shaqiri, though the latter is more injured than fit, but the lack of goals is evident. I only saw the summary on Match Of The Day, so how did Bony look in his first start for the Potters? This bad run can't continue for too long or they'll be in trouble and the same can be said for Southampton too. The Saints have had to sell tons of quality players and lost two managers whose tactics can turn matches around... is Claude Puel the right man for the job or do we think they will struggle throughout the season?

• Mario Balotelli notches twice on his debut for Olympique Nice.
• Frank de Boer was saved by two late Mauro Icardi goals to win away at Pescara.
• Luis Enrique took a risk resting Iniesta, Messi and Suarez, which saw Barcelona lose at home to promoted side Alaves.

Drew tripling up on Everton players paid off... Lukaku: 34 points - only 2% of 3.8 million managers captained him! Bolasie: 7 points. Williams: 6 points.