Looking ahead at our coming fixtures, I wonder when the first banana skin of the season will come. When the team is playing well, it's always difficult to imagine it will suddenly stop, but at some point it will. Our next six league games look like games we should be able to win, but it's extremely unlikely that we start the season with 8 straight wins - not even Man City did that the season they got 100 points.

Bournemouth might actually be a tricky fixture. I wouldn't be surprised to see them relegated in the end, but facing these newly promoted teams early on can be difficult. They started with a good win against Villa, and their loss against City is pretty easy to write off. They're still on that early season buzz, and their fans will be well up for it.

Apparently Souness said that Aubameyang 'struggled' in the premier league.

His goal record was phenomenal, golden boot once, runner up golden boot once, settled straight away with 10 goals in his first half season. The last few months weren't good but his focus was gone - he certainly didn't struggle.

Like you I expect Bournemouth to be relegated but it will be a difficult fixture. After that our next away games are Manchester United and Brentford. We may have better players than all of them, but to win all three will be extraordinary.

Don’t write off forthcoming home games as guaranteed wins either. Football isn’t that predictable. Otherwise everyone would make fortunes from betting on the results of games.

I honestly think introducing more female pundits has been so refreshing for the coverage. They understand the game every bit as well as the retired male pros and are there entirely on merit IMO. Gaby Logan is a fabulous anchor and her presentation of the Euros was superb. Alex Scott has become a really confident pundit too.

The language police. They can *%^@ off as far as I'm concerned.

I usually prefer listening to the later. Alan Hansen got it to a fine art and avoided talking bollocks,

While the pundits thought it was violent play, MOTD2 tonight said there was no mention of hair pulling when violent play is defined in the regulations. Sounds like the rules of the game may need to be reworded.

Wouldn't it be taken as read that anything that would qualify as assault under the law, and isn't explicitly excluded by the rules of the game (i.e. fair contact when going for the ball) is violent and/or ungentlemanly?

In my view Alan Hansen was the best pundit I’ve seen. Made a huge contribution to MOTD.

EDIT: Must admit, of the current MOTD ones I don’t mind Danny Murphy and Jermaine Jenas.

It's the same here in Sweden. The thing is, being a good pundit seems to have very little to do with how much football experience one has. Sven-Göran Eriksson was a pundit for a while; he's by far the most decorated Swedish manager of all time, having won the league and cup double in three different countries, won the Serie A with Lazio, managed England and so on, and he's one of the worst pundits I've ever seen. Just a mumbling cliché machine. Conversely, some of the best pundits we have weren't anything special at all in their active careers, several of them never played above the Swedish top league.

Living in Philadelphia I get all of my EPL from NBCSPORTS. Rebecca Lowe is a terrific anchor…passionate, articulate and knowledgeable
Although he wasn’t in the very top flight as a player Robbie Mustoe is a very smart and perceptive analyst …all in all I enjoy their coverage a lot
I also like Andy Townsend as a co commentator

I would have thought so, but who knows? I’ve never read the rules and regulations and have no intention of ever doing so.

However, MOTD2 felt it worth mentioning that hair pulling is not mentioned when violent conduct is defined.

I honestly think introducing more female pundits has been so refreshing for the coverage. They understand the game every bit as well as the retired male pros and are there entirely on merit IMO. Gaby Logan is a fabulous anchor and her presentation of the Euros was superb. Alex Scott has become a really confident pundit too.

I also think that Chelsea player deserves a booking for having a hair style like that. He’s a professional footballer not some guitarist from a 1970s hard rock band.

https://youtu.be/a91mrDs6dSE
As pointed out on MOTD this hair pull by Hutu on Fellaini resulted in post match video review and a 3 match ban for Huth for violent conduct. So given plenty of time the PGMOL concluded pulling someone’s hair violently enough to throw their neck back is a red card offence….and then decide a few years later it isn’t.

He may make me eat my words if Chelsea buy him, but I think Aubameyang would be a very high risk signing and I would almost expect him to flop.

Us Arsenal fans know him better than most - on his day he's a wonderful goalscorer, but apart from scoring he doesn't really do much else. He doesn't press well, he's not a hard worker, his hold up play and ability to link up with teammates is quite frankly very poor. He's a finisher and that's it, and sometimes that's fine, I just don't see him working under Tuchel who demands a lot more from his strikers as we've seen with the failure of Lukaku, Werner etc.

Chelsea bidding £43m for Anthony Gordon really emphasises their scattergun transfer policy this year.

Nobody is referring to this incident and calling him out as a sexist but it would be a daft comment to make once with a female player sat next to you but he then repeated it later!

It is worth observing though that he came across as a clueless prat from the 80s and that generally his comments yesterday were a load of tosh and forgive me for saying this but he might have had a few. It’s not really about the comment being sexist.

Aubameyang struggling with Tuchel ..hmmm. He and Tuchel worked together when Aubameyang was at Dortmund and had a decent relationship. So both should be familiar with each other's expectations.

And Souness's comment about it being a "man's game" whilst sitting next to Karen Carney was as crass and daft as anything else that went on yesterday.

I would have thought so, but who knows? I’ve never read the rules and regulations and have no intention of ever doing so.

However, MOTD2 felt it worth mentioning that hair pulling is not mentioned when violent conduct is defined.

So they have bid for, and are hoping to sign, Gordon, De Jong, Fofana and Aubameyang.

That's daft.

Rule 12 specifically mentions spitting, striking, and kicking. But unless I am mistaken it doesn't specifically mention a whole host of things, like biting someone, poking your opponent in the eye, etc. so I think it is not a valid argument to say only specifically mentioned things count.

Plus they are signing Casadei from inter and have already spent 90 million or something.

Those players you mentioned will easily cost 200 million if they get the deals done. That’s unprecedented spending I think. I can’t recall another team in the league spending 300 million in a summer window

Living in Philadelphia I get all of my EPL from NBCSPORTS. Rebecca Lowe is a terrific anchor…passionate, articulate and knowledgeable
Although he wasn’t in the very top flight as a player Robbie Mustoe is a very smart and perceptive analyst …all in all I enjoy their coverage a lot
I also like Andy Townsend as a co commentator

Andy,
Rebecca Lowe was a presenter on Setanta Sports after the BBC. She co-hosted Football Matters, Football Conference as well as commenting on the PL. She then moved on to ESPN after Setanta folded, and now at NBS Sports. She's an avid Palace supporter, so no doubt she'll be fist pumping Vieira to a possible win over Liverpool.