I don't think the first Manchester derby will be a draw, 3 points will be taken but it's hard to predict who exactly will win. That game is in the middle of a tricky period for us which includes away games at Chelsea & Arsenal. If we're still near the top after those games then I will start to believe more that we will win the league this season.

 

I think you're much stronger this season, but I still think Man City and Chelsea are stronger. Very good start, but by all accounts Everton and Southampton had huge periods of the game where they were completely on top. You could see Man Utd just getting deeper and deeper. It's easy to read in the table so early (Man City have less points than last season at this same stage!).

 

The only thing that is a certainty this year is Crystal Palace are getting relegated.

Yeah it's a question of when, not if for Palace.

 

I don't think we will win the league this year but we should retain Champions League football I reckon. Especially as at the crunch part of the season we won't have European Football this year so can concentrate on securing a good league spot.

 

All 6 matches between the 2 Manc clubs and Liverpool will be interesting to watch. Everyone has strength up top and is scoring plenty this year, but City and Pool are somewhat defensively fragile. Curious as to how Jose will set up for these matches and if the City/Pool game is about who concedes less rather than pure fire power

0 after 8 games for Crystal Palace then most likely?

Given their next two fixtures that looks highly likely. Ah well :w00t:

Yeah it's a question of when, not if for Palace.

 

I don't think we will win the league this year but we should retain Champions League football I reckon. Especially as at the crunch part of the season we won't have European Football this year so can concentrate on securing a good league spot.

 

All 6 matches between the 2 Manc clubs and Liverpool will be interesting to watch. Everyone has strength up top and is scoring plenty this year, but City and Pool are somewhat defensively fragile. Curious as to how Jose will set up for these matches and if the City/Pool game is about who concedes less rather than pure fire power

 

For me this year while I don't think you will win the league, you're a shoe-in for top 4 which is something I did not think last year. Obviously I think right now you really miss Pogba. I think gone are the days when the top teams can all realistically compete in 4 tournaments too (the Leicester defeat was pretty painful, but for the bigger picture this year I think it is good for Liverpool). 2nd half of the season is when we will really see what's happening.

 

Liverpool are defensively fragile, but a lot of it is being blown out of proportion imo. Our problem is we don't concede too many chances per game, but when we do 9 times out of 10 they result in a goal. A lot of our problems are in our shape and brain farts from our players, but unfortunately for the way City and Liverpool attack it means we leave our defence very exposed sometimes.

I still wouldn't write Palace off myself just yet, yes they may well be on nothing after 8 games but will have the 2 away Manchester games out of the way & there's nothing to say they won't start a run of victories from week 9 onwards. I think the goals will come when Zaha comes back & Loftus starts firing (he could & should have scored twice yesterday).

 

Surprised at how poor their defence has been this season though, on paper their back 4 certainly isn't the worst in the league.

I still wouldn't write Palace off myself just yet, yes they may well be on nothing after 8 games but will have the 2 away Manchester games out of the way & there's nothing to say they won't start a run of victories from week 9 onwards. I think the goals will come when Zaha comes back & Loftus starts firing (he could & should have scored twice yesterday).

 

Surprised at how poor their defence has been this season though, on paper their back 4 certainly isn't the worst in the league.

 

I think the gap will be to far by then though. They will literally have to have pretty much Top 6/7 form to stay up. While on paper their squad is not that bad, I've seen better teams relegated. Sakho will be massive for them as will Zaha when he returns. But personally I feel the damage may have already been done.

I wonder if Crystal Palace will break some of Derby's unwanted records from the 2007/08 season? Derby had only 11 points for the whole of that season, they won only one match & they were the first team to get officially relegated in March. Even Derby started better than Crystal Palace have this season.

A solid win for Brighton over Newcastle today. A very average game there.

Man City vs Man Utd will be an AMAZING game for a neutral. Both sides have been outstanding so far, it's so nice to see United (who I've always had a soft spot for) back at the top and with a new batch of young talent.

 

I wouldn't say the United team was full of young talent?

Lukaku, Shaw, Pogba, Rashford, Bailly, Lingard, Lindelhof, Martial to name but a few of the 'young' un's and I'm not even trying

But most are well established pros with plenty of experience - the way the statement was made it was like 1994 when loads of players came through!

Glad Brighton managed to hold on and win..was very tense game during most of the second half!

A solid win for Brighton over Newcastle today. A very average game there.

I'm happy to accept three points from an average game :D

But most are well established pros with plenty of experience - the way the statement was made it was like 1994 when loads of players came through!

Tbh I'd say Lindelof, Lingard, Bailly and even Rashford could be considered to have 'just came through' - this is their first time in the big time and they're grown accustomed to it very quickly.

I'm not up to date with Londelof but Lingaard has been out on loan at Birmingham and other clubs for a fair while before he broke through into the United first team around 2015

Aguero is set to be out of Sunday's match between Man City and Chelsea following breaking a rib in an car crash in Amsterdam on Thursday night.

 

 

That's gonna really mess up a lot of people's fantasy teams. I can see already that he's by far the most transferred out player of the week but I don't have him in my team so it doesn't affect me. I hope he recovers well from his injury but from a footballing point of view he shouldn't rush back too soon.....

I watched the match against Crystal Palace inside Old Trafford and it dawned on me even more how bad Palace are. They offered barely anything in attack and their defence is very weak, it was a very comfortable win for Manchester United and there was no feeling of anxiety whatsoever throughout the whole 90 mins. The game was effectively over within the first 3 minutes when Juan Mata scored the first goal and I don't think there will be an easier game for the rest of the season. Crystal Palace are well and truly screwed unless they drastically change their approach to games.

I checked last night and Palace failed to score in four of their last five matches last season. The only exception was a 4-0 win over Hull in the penultimate match. They scored the fourth in the 90th minute so they have now gone a full eight league matches with no points and no goals.

Palace are done. I mean to be fair they probably should have scored yesterday and if they had not let such a sloppy goal in within the first 3 minutes then things may have been very different. Hodgson is about the worst appointment they could have made.

 

Man City look dangerous.