Harrumph....

No joshing. The chanting that I've heard on the TV at St Helens have involved far more expletives deleted than any other RL ground I've heard (on TV, as I say). I can't think of a mucky chant at Rhinos.

You're right about Hull FC. I nearly got into a fight with a twenty stone 60 odd year old at Headingley about some trivial incident, and I wasn't even a committed fan! If he'd done what he said he was going to do he'd have had a heart attack. for sure

To clarify, I considered myself a Liverpool fan long before the Premier League's inception, in fact I can trace that back to the late 70's. I've just never been big on going to Anfield.

It's something that I've never thought of as peculiar. Indeed hardly anyone I've known throughout my years, who has considered themself a fan of whatever team (and it's either Liverpool, Man U or Everton round here) has been a regular at their team's ground - hand on heart probably less than 1 in 20.

Does not going regularly to your club's stadium to see them play make someone less of a fan? For me, no. I think there's many ways of being a supporter. I like the banter with fans of other teams, the ins and outs of team football, the appraising of performances, and the rivalries.

But none of this has anything to do with Liverpool being in the Premier League.

I doubt that Spurs will play that badly again this season - until next week of course

Lots of 'young boys' jokes this evening - not least the commentator saying 'young boys don't normally have clean sheets'

As for your reference to Wembley Park, well I know the area like the back of my hand. If I told you it has improved over the last 5 or 10 years you would probably find that hard to believe.

P.S.

Young Boys had a pretty useful RB (Scott Sutter). Might be worth Capello having a look at him because God forbid Glen Johnson needs some competition.

One of the more pointless bans in recent football history. The word 'clowns' is entirely appropriate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8893705.stm

Bates speaks sense, for once. Being on national TV should be no barrier to everyone being treated equally.

http://www.leedsunited.com/news/20100818/well-defend-our-corner-chairman_2247585_2126692

Turmoil at Blackpool?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/blackpool/8925912.stm

Assuming Gallas doesn't fail his medical on Friday it looks like he'll be signing for Spurs over the weekend.

TBH, I don't what to make of this. A portion of me reckons he could be a very useful addition to the squad. A rather bigger portion of me thinks he's knackered and well past his sell by date. We shall soon find out.

Trouble maker , your welcome to him. Cant believe Spurs want him to be honest

I take that as a No then

There'll not be much disappointment around here I'm sure and Arsenal will do well being rid of him. He could be a good fit though in terms of attitude and standing for 'Arry's Spurs side.  

Dirk Kuyt on his way out?

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2010/08/20/2079050/rafael-benitezs-inter-agree-deal-for-liverpool-forward-dirk-kuyt-

That'd be massively unpopular on the Anfield terraces. Kuyt is a cult hero amongst Liverpool fans, who see that he always gives his absolute all. He's no slouch, either, having been crucial to some of Liverpool's albeit meagre successes since joining. Either Liverpool have had an offer they can't refuse (unlikely); the player wants out (if so, he's kept it admirably under wraps instead of mouthing off to the media); or Hodgson doesn't rate him and will see off any fans' backlash in order to stamp his own authority on the team.

Or the report is total bobbins.

Anyway, a very bitty performance from Liverpool last night, very disjointed, with far too many passes going astray. Trabzonspor were a lot better than expected, though, with a perfect gameplan to not allow Liverpool to settle on the ball. My concern is that Liverpool are too one-paced. It's all very well adopting a continental-style slow passing game, waiting for the opportunity to open up, but if the team cannot click up the gears in the blink of an eye to exploit the gap when it comes, they won't be succesful. There were too few flashes of that with Liverpool last night - the [very nice] Babel goal being the best example of how we should be doing it. Of course, it's still early days in Hodgson's reign, and he might be working hard to change the Liverpool mindset. Thinking about it, no wonder that so many of Liverpool's goals these past few years have come from a piece of individual brilliance rather than piercing teamplay. No wonder that Torres and Gerrard have been so vital to the functioning of Liverpool. That is the result, I guess, of passing it about ineffectively, waiting for the right time to hoof it to Torres or Gerrard for them to try to do their stuff. The more I ponder it, the more I see how flawed Benitez's management style was/is.

 He's had 2 competitive games in charge I thought? Although as you imply, a few mediocre performances is all it takes these days for speculation to begin.

Eh?

My points were that Liverpool were one-paced, have been so for some time, that it's probably a result of Benitez's tactics, and that Hodgson is likely to be working hard to rectify it.

Kenny Wang pulls out.

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2010/08/20/2080125/breaking-news-kenny-huang-pulls-out-of-the-race-to-takeover

Lol, you want to see a classic goal on MOTD tonight, then look out for Gareth Bale's second one against Stoke

BTW, why TF is Delap allowed to use a towel on the ball, apart from the blindingly obvious fact it allows him to throw the ball further.

Welcome to the real world Blackpool  

(It's now 6)

Good news for England, at least.

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2010/08/21/2081156/mikel-arteta-admits-he-would-seriously-consider-playing-for

A rare Paul Scholes interview available here:http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8933749.stm

'Kiss of Death' alert.

Drogba claims after his recent op that he's the fittest he has been in six years. Certainly looks as if he has more pace and guile. Although he has played against two crap teams and has yet to be tested against the big boys a very productive season beckons.

The most complete forward in the PL by a country mile IMHO. 

Superb result for Chelsea, they look good

EDIT

Or are Wigan that bad?