what the hell happened to that guy? he was amazing, as i recall. now he’s barely 30 and going downhill so fast? how is he ever gonna make it to 40 at this rate?

There's been question marks about Hart for years now. Adrian absolutely deserved the place and he must've made it his to lose now.

Couldn't fault WH, for the performance as much as the result. It started against Man City (where even they must admit they got lucky) and now this. From a purely footballing perspective I'm feeling positive but until we get new owners I can't see us moving forward in any real way. But this season's all about survival and today showed there is some fight there, and with Moyes someone with a bit of tactical know-how.

did he turn out to be all speed and reflexes but no brains?

anyway a bit late for this now tired meme but hahaha

“the group of death”

He's a confidence keeper who's confidence is shot and sometimes tries to cover that up with acts of bravado. I don't rate him anywhere near as highly now as I used to. I don't know how much you've seen of DeGea recently but he has to be a contender for world #1 right now. Incredible keeper.

On the subject of number ones, Ronaldo wins the B'allon d'or. Equalling Messi's record of 5. While I'll always be for Messi, I sort of hope neither win another one so at least in that measure they can go into the record books as equals. Not sure who's in a position to seriously challenge them yet, though: Neymar? DeBruyne?

Oh and in case the world has forgotten, West Ham beat Chelsea yesterday.

ronaldo, that son of a bitch. he’s really great though.

man, speaking of bravado, i am sure missing the hell out of this sport in spite of my outward stoicism.

“hopefully” (as they say) i’ll be all set for the world cup.

btw, saw a trailer for a vin diesel movie recently and neymar was in it ha hah a. he doing ok at psg?

I've not heard anything about PSG so I assume all's well. I really don't want him to win a ballon d'or though.

I'm pretty much wrapped up in the prem this season. West Ham are in too precarious a position to concentrate on much else. For the neutral though, it's been worth watching just to see MC evolve into something pretty brilliant. We all agree Pep has his faults but when he gets it right it's a thing to behold. Debruyne and Silva are playing some next-level football right now.

Meanwhile what about old Everton, now sitting comfortably in mid table. Whatever I might think about Allardyce I can see him getting the best out of Rooney, who I can see being locked quite lucratively into Allardyce's trademark Kevin Nolan role. And Calvert Lewin seems ideal for whenever Sam goes long.

West Ham are starting to beef up under Moyes , the one thing I haven't been able to say about them for years, even during the Allardyce years. But I'm really wary of reading too much into the MC and Chelsea performances. That was back to the wall stuff, totally focused on defence. I'll have to wait and see how we do against teams that we'll be expected to chase. The match against Stoke will say more about where WH really are in terms of progress. But if the game against MC gave me a hint of optimism, the Chelsea win has given me a little bit of confidence.

Agreed with the Ballo d'or and wanting to keep it just at 5 each. Besides, already we can see neither of them are having vintage years and that there are more consistent players out there. Honestly, as much as I hate the idea, if PSG win the champions league and Neymar gets to the final with Brazil then they'll give it him. *through gritted teeth* "it's a damn popularity contest with you kids"

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW!!

Juventus v Tottenham
Basel v Manchester City
Porto v Liverpool
Sevilla v Manchester United
Real Madrid v Paris Saint-Germain
Shakhtar Donetsk v Roma
Chelsea v Barcelona
Bayern Munich v Besiktas

What a draw that is. Some potentially great games there!

Lothar Matthäus says that Chile will be the country that he will miss the most in the World Cup in Russia

(That's the Google translation; original article in Spanish here.)

I'm getting to the point where I'm gutted if I miss either a live game or MOTD when Man City play.

I feel like I could bang on and on about how great it is to watch them play. I know symbols has some weird desire to see him fail, but what he's done for that team is something else. Honestly, in football terms he's an absolute genius. Whilst we've seen what he did for Barcelona and (to a lesser extent) Bayern, this just confirms what we already knew the.

ha ha ha, come on, no. it’s not like that... exactly

when it works, pep can make teams levitate off the ground and it’s a wonder to witness.

i’ll never forget the 7-0 they inflicted upon roma in the champions. it was pure wizardry.

i don’t know what he’s doing these days, but in bayern he was too much the idealist. he forced players out of position and sometimes it was great but sometimes it was terrible.

his use of neuer as the ultimate sweeper keeper was genius.

that genius was used to cover a vulnerable defense. a vulnerability in part created by his insistence in moving lahm to the midfield.

so bayern fell to fast counters once and again and again and he did nothing to make up for that except double down on his gamble and fail worse and get punked repeatedly.

not in the bundesliga where winning had become trivial at that point, given the collapse of dortmund and the pilfering of wolfsburg (they had the great debruyne and he was taken and the team collapsed) . but in the champions where it mattered most.

bayern was supposed to rule the champions and oooops! no. his soft underbelly was exposed and cut open.

i don’t know what he’s doing in the prem except for your reports, and i don’t know if he’s learned from past mistakes and evolved something else, so i can’t say i wish him ill.

i don’t have a problem with the guy or his ideals—only with the hubris and tyranny that come with it. he’s great, until he isn’t. do i make sense or am i just rambling incoherently? please tell me ha ha ha.

you got me curious and went reading and holy shit

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42381736

he’s turned the prem into the bundesliga :D

I completely agree. I get the same excitement watching MC this season that I got seeing Barcelona at their peak. I had my doubts about Pep last season but I was wrong. What he's done to players like De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling, Sane, Stones, etc, is nothing short of miraculous.

Meanwhile ...



Ya beauty

Ah man, real glad he's made the turn around you needed. Liked Arnautovic's baiting of Stoke yesterday too.

Yeah, so far I couldn't ask for more! He seems to have brought the best out of Arnie and actually given us a bit of grit - something WH have never been associated with, even during their better periods.

How are you finding Big Sam?

is that that moyes guy? face looks familiar

wait wasn’t he the one took over man u after fergie left? lol pieces starting to come back together.

congrats on the lucky turn at the musical chairs!

The Moyessiah to you, son.

haa haa ha haa!

fine. but i have no dog in that fight!