Redcanuck

I don't think for one moment that he is available, at least from the club's prespective. Raiola, who knows what he is up to? Pogba has indicated he knows nothing about it.

Is that Pedro and Morata suspended for the game against Brighton?

I dont think it is that big of a deal that Chelsea finished second in the group. Sure you could draw PSG or Barcelona, but if you had finished first you could have gotten Real Madrid, Juventus or Bayern Munich. Maybe the second leg at home is an advantage, but not much. I agree about Bale too much of a liability with his injury record. Maybe for about half what Real would want. You would get about half a season out of him and he would be enough of an asset marketing wise to recuperate the transfer fee. I also see a possible assest strip at Spurs if Levy refuses to increase their wage bill. Hard to see their players wanting to remain there if they can double and triple their wages elsewhere.

Conte's argument is a valid one but an old one. The FA has never supported English clubs in Europe. It goes back to the beginning of European competitions in the mid 50's. Chelsea won the league in 55 and were not allowed to play in the European cup. I have often wondered if United would have tried to get off that runway a third time at Munich if they didn't have to get back to play Wolves two days later on the 8th of February. If they had stayed over night in Munich they wouldn't have got back to England til the 7th and I believe, but I am not 100% sure that they would have had to forfeit the game against Wolves because they did not get back to England 48 hours before kickoff. Other European leagues bend over backwards to help their teams. Hard to imagine that Real or Bayern would have to face a tough domestic rival two days after getting home after playing an European game as Chelsea has to do this weekend. It has been 60 years, it time for the English FA to do something to help English clubs in Europe.

That the beauty of belonging to a forum where everyone supports different teams. If you just what positive comments stick to the United equalivant of RAWK or Blue moon. A lot of the Chelsea fans are bitter about Mourinho and that colours anything he is connected to. You have to expect that in away, Mourinho's last year at Chelsea was a disaster. As for TB, judging by the quality of his posts, I suspect he is about 12 years old and with the time difference is usually in bed by the time I am on here, at least on a school night. As for Pogba, now he is back from injury, hopefully we will have the last laugh. I think he makes United tick, everything goes through him and United have missed him a great deal. Performances should be better than the last 6 weeks or so.

Looks like you and Teso both have jobs as publicity agents for their perspective clubs. I don't know about anyone else but I have no interest in seeing jingolistic press accounts from football clubs reposted here. I am more interested in reading your opinion about football, even if I disagree with it.

Just got home from work and did not see the game, so can't really say anything other than a great result beating a top team like Spurs.

Not that I felt Mourinho was saying it, but I think the worst the conditions are the more the better of the two teams is affected. Creates a more level playing field.

He didn't blame the wind and the rain, he said the circumstances were difficult but that is not an excuse. Huddersfield just wanted it more. I thought he was open and honest in defeat even humble. Probably in shock like the rest of us.

Very poor performance, especially in the first half. Should never drop points to Huddlesfield.

While happy about United's start, I do wonder about it. That is why I told you I would wait til Guy Fawkes Day to get excited or not.

T Thanks I will say the same about you , especially in your chose of teams to support.

Not so much their position in the table but the form of a team should be taking into account. United did run up so lopsided wins against teams in poor form and just because we beat Palace by 4 goals and you lost to them by a goal, does not mean we will beat you by 5 the next time we play. However, If you diminish United's run of 4 -0 wins because the opposition were in poor form, then Cheslea's win in Madrid has to be judged in new light due to Atletico's struggles especially in the Champions League.

Atletico has struggled at times this season, though they seem to be playing better in Liga lately, doesn't their result against Qarabag and the chance they may not advance from the group stages, diminish Cheslea's result in Madrid any? Not to take anything from Cheslea's performance they played a great game, but Atletico have been a little of their game this season.

There is no doubt many United fans were disappointed in the way Mourinho set the team up against Liverpool. I certainly thought we would be more adventurous and attack Liverpool's defence which is their weak spot. Mourinho's game plan was to sit back and defend for the first hour or so and catch Liverpool on the break when they opened up going for the win. However, Liverpool never took off their extra midfielder to bring on a another striker and the game never opened up enough for United to catch them on the counter. I would have liked to see Mourinho do more to open up the game and go for the win, but he has United playing more cautiously since Pogba has been out. But if he had went for the win in the last 10 minutes and Liverpool scored a winner, he would have been criticized. Hopefully the one point gained will be a important over the course of the season.

I realise that about those two, just was not thinking about Qarabag. Have to finalize my team within the next few hours, flying overseas and won't have Internet for a couple of days.

Damn, never thought Chelsea would rest players for the CL. I have Courtois, Rudiger and Hazard in my fantasy team. Looks like a last minute overhaul.

Hope he gets back to his best which was his Southampton days and nails down the left back spot for United.

They can't move on from Kompany, he's the only decent defender they have. I would go so far as to say unless they keep him some what healthy they won't win the league.

Actually I thought Bakayoko looked a bit clumsy, I know he is not match fit but, he sure crashed into a fair number of Spurs players. He gave up the foul that led to the own goal and just after that gave up a foul on the edge of the box that Spurs should have down better from. I would have to see him play a few times more before I pass judgement.

No but I might have to suppress a chuckle or two.

Has there been confirmation from the club yet or is it just media speculation based on one tweet from a journalist who is supposed to be close to the club?

I agree about the penalty or red card risk with Bailly. He is really inexperience and raw, he only played 30 odd games of first team football before he came to United. However, he has all the tools, he is big, strong and fast and his defending can be very good, when he gets it right. I think they can rid him of his rashness and make a good defender out of him. At least I hope so. To me CB is the hardest position to learn, it takes time to develop a really good one and they are becoming harder to find. United have improved a lot since Moyes and LVG, (because we were really bad then), but they have not improved as much as people are saying. We are not title contenders as of yet and the games against Barcelona and Real showed how far we are behind the top teams in the Champions League. But we are getting better, just a lot slower than most of us would like.

Some people wear red tinted sunglasses (and blue). I like the looks of Bailly, but he is young and makes rash decisions, but Bailly should benefit from playing a year in the Premier and we finally got rid of the African Cup of Nations in January, so his seasons won't be split up anymore. Lindelof seems to be having a little trouble adjusting to United and I think it will take awhile for him to find his feet in the Premier. However, Lindelof showed at Benfica and with Sweden that he has the talent and Mourinho will bring him along slowly like he did last year with Mkhitaryan. I think they can grow into a pretty good centre back pairing, but it will take a lot of games before they become familiar enough with each other before that happens. Good CB pairings don't happen over night, so I would hold off on saying they are one of the best until they play at least game together in the Premier.

It is just getting interesting, more than 3 week to go yet.