442 - The Football (soccer) Forum

Big win for Dortmund over Bayern...

Claudio Ranieri is back in the EPL...this time as manager of Fulham.

Blimey..... you've been talking to yourself for over a year now. But not to worry, I'm back now and ready to resume educating you about football again.

Yep, CR is back in English football management after his shameful sacking from Leicester. He had a good win yesterday over a Southampton team whose owners are likely to make Mark Hughes the second Premier League managerial casualty of the season. He's probably only two defeats away from the chop.

Manchester United are an irrelevance in the Premier League now. Maurinho has failed to put together a team capable of challenging. Indeed, they were so poor against an equally woeful Crystal Palace yesterday that their own fans booed them off. Manchester United fans booing Red Devils off the pitch..!! It wouldn't have happened under Sralex, but Sralex isn't in charge any more.

Manchester City on the other hand are marvellous and appear to be steamrollering the Premier League again. They've now beaten West Ham four times since Hammers moved to the Olympic Stadium, with a goal difference of 17 scored and 1 conceded. West Ham are Pep Guardiola's bunnies.

Liverpool look like being their only real challengers this season, although Spurs showed what they are capable of when they hit their bootstraps. They utterly mullah'd Chelsea at Wembley yesterday.

Huddersfield have got into their stride now, winning 2 - 0 at Wolves today.

Glenn Hoddle is out of hospital after his heart surgery. His recovery will be long and slow, but we're all glad he's safe and well.

Champions League Game Week 5 this week. City can win their group if they get a victory away at Lyon.... who beat them at Eastlands in Week One, but Spurs have to beat Milan and then win away at Barcelona in week 6 to go through. I wouldn't bother, Mauricio. Just play out the fixtures and concentrate on the Prem.

Spurs would do well to really have a go at winning the FA Cup this season. They need a trophy desperately just to get something.... ANYTHING.... in the trophy cabinet to show for their improvement.

Manchester City began their comeback to the big time by winning the FA Cup in 2011. The following season they won the Premier League. The rest is history.

Gotta start somewhere.

Quite enjoying watching Real implode at the moment. They lost 3-0 to Eibar over the weekend and are currently in 6th place having lost 5 of their opening 13 matches. Indeed La Liga is probably the most interesting of the top leagues this season with only 6 pts separating the top 7.

The Bundesliga is also interesting. A revamped Dortmund are top of the table with giants Bayern München currently 9 pts off the pace in 5th.

Lucien Favre has done a wonderful job at Dortmund thus far, bringing back the attacking style of football for which the club had been known under Klopp and Tuchel. Despite constantly losing their best players to bigger clubs Dortmund have invested the transfer money wisely (unlike Monaco).

There is still a long way to go and Bayern may yet make it 7 in a row (i hope not), but with Mönchengladbach and Eintracht Frankfurt currently doing well the fight for the title is at least looking competitive.

Unfortunately in the Serie A Juve look untouchable. In the next 5 years Inter look set to emerge as their greatest rival but for this season it looks like Juve will win the title in a cake walk.

Still talking to yourself...? Life in an echo chamber, eh..? Ho hum..!!

The last time Bayern was nine points off the lead was in the 2011-12 season...

Difficult to see Niko Kovac surviving much longer if things dont turn around quickly. Perhaps Bayern will be Wenger's next challenge.

Uhuh. Like when you confidently proclaimed that "Pep Guardiola has come in with some very continental ideas which might work well in Spain or Germany where there are perhaps only two or three good teams in the league and the rest can be trundled over without too much difficulty, BUT the EPL is a completely different animal."

If De Gea leaves at seasons end (assuming United dont trigger his 12 month contract extension) then they had better hope they are able to lure someone close to the class of Jan Oblak to the club, or things could well go from bad to worse for them (which would be fine by me).

Chelsea really seem to have an unhealthy reliance on Jorginho and Hazard...

It's a shame what the endlessly deep pockets of Qatar have done to Ligue 1