nd

Agreed. But at the same time, 10 points out of 12 is title-winning form. This is a very good start - more so considering how s*** we normally are at the start of the season.

I was five or six years old. My dad bought a sticker album for me and my slightly younger brother to share, telling us that we had to turn to a page and support that team. I got Liverpool, he got Notts County.

That is f***ing class.

I'm not a betting man. Is it a realistic ambition for us to win the league? Yes. Should our expectations match our ambitions? Not always, but this year I just don't see why we should expect anything less. We are good enough to win it - so that is my expectation. Something wrong, I think, if you're good enough to win something but don't. As said, I'm not going to throw a hissy fit and call for Rafa's head if we don't: the most important lesson in recent British football history is the way the Man U hierarchy stuck with Ferguson despite the clamour to sack him. But I fully expect to see no. 19 in our trophy room by May. And while I have no insight into the mind of top sportsmen or those who manage them, I imagine they hold themselves to some pretty exacting standards.

This content is not viewable to guests.,This content is not viewable to guests.

Yeah, I do. We've got the players and the manager for it, and I can't see any valid excuses (for the first time in a long time). That doesn't mean that I think we will necessarily win the league, and it certainly doesn't mean that Rafa should be shunted off if we don't do it. But if the current squad can't "realistically" be "expected" to win the league, then there's something wrong? Who's the next £20m+ player we must have to "complete the jigsaw"? What manager could we get that is better than Rafa (answer: none)? I honestly think that Rafa and the lads will start the season with that exact expectation in mind. Same for Chelsea and Man U. There can only be one winner, of course, but when we kick off against Villa that is the expectation.

Result.

I realistically expect us to win the league, and if the manager and players think anything else then we should be worried - because they'll have accepted second or third best without a ball being kicked. If Rafa doesn't do it, then the answer to the question of what will keep him in the job is that we must see a serious league challenge. It's his team now, and he has financial backing enough to ensure that.

Not got time to read through all the posts here, but to address Leo's original point: the "points gap" is b******s - purpose-built to exaggerate the differences in quality between teams. Expect to hear alot more of it once the season starts - Sky will absolutely lap it up - but we are not 21 points worse than Man U. Far more pleasing to talk about the "goals gap". A single goal against Man U in the game they cheated and fluked through, for example, might've reduced the "points gap" to 15. Can't be arsed to work out just how many goals we would've needed to make the "points gap" look more respectable, but I know for a fact that it's much less hairy than the "points gap" makes out. Worth pointing out in this context that the "goals gap" stuffed us in the CL final too.

True, but that was Craig Bellamy. Bellamy has a temperament that will always make him a risk, would certainly struggle to force his way into the England team, isn't highly rated in Europe, and is on a downward spiral that will only get worse as he gets slower with age. Fundamentally, Crouch causes other teams problems and not his own. With the market for English strikers being somewhat mental, I can't see Rafa selling him at significantly less than that.

£20m for Crouch? Just goes to show that no matter what the doom-mongers who have always put him down say, the lad offers something that is highly prized by actual (rather than armchair) football managers.

About five minutes by the look of it.

"Kewell chose us ahead of practically every other top club in Europe, many of which were offering more money." From what I remember, when he signed he indicated it was because of something Houllier had promised him. What was that? I like Kewell, but even when he hasn't been injured he has been touched by poor form and, yes, sometimes a lack of effort. Note I say 'touched by', because he has been good - sometimes for many games in a row. I think the frustration with him comes from the fact that he has *never* come close to achieving the potential that was clear to see when he was at Leeds. Leeds FFS! Whether that is due to injuries (I think so), lack of application, or just because he played out of his skin for Leeds (like many others from that team: Smith, Bowyer, even Bakke) and has been over-rated since then I don't know. But it's true. He's the wrong side of his peak years now, arguably, and I will be genuinely surprise if he lasts more than another season with us. Indeed, it's not so very hard to imagine Rafa wanting rid this transfer window. Would he be wrong? Nope. It is unfair and idiotic to criticise a player for being injured, but there's more to it with Harry than that.

Well, I was very pissed by the time he came on and not exactly in a positive frame of mind, so my judgement may have been clouded. But he looked distinctly average to me. A few hints of being a threat, but I don't remember him doing anything that made me think he was going to provide an answer. 'Major' threat is over-egging it. We didn't have a 'major' threat the whole game. Would've been a different game (and possibly outcome) had we done. And this really could be my mind playing tricks on me, but I thought he lost possession in the run-up to the second goal? Indeed, wasn't he concerned more with trying to get the ref to blow for a foul than trying to win the ball back? If not, why do I have that image in my head? Someone please explain, because I really don't want to have to watch the replay.