Surprisingly only two clubs with 100% records after two games.

I had my tongue firmly, very firmly, in my cheek when I wrote that post. Although Cucurella’s hair (I’ve looked up the spelling since calling him ‘that Chelsea player’) is arguably more extreme (or unkept) than that of Guendouzi (and indeed David Luiz), OMOH pointed out the similarities.

That isn’t to deny Cucurella is still a long haired git though.

To be fair to MOTD2, they didn’t. The pundits, as I said earlier, called it violent conduct. They simply mentioned that hair pulling wasn’t specifically mentioned in the regulations, which I think was an interesting and reasonable thing to point out.

No to mention biting a la Luis Suarez.

Read a few rumours today. AMN to a club in Germany. Nice interested in taking Pépé (will surely be a loan), and Arsenal interested in Caicedo from Brighton

So checking the table, we are in solid second place with Brentford nipping at our heels and United in relegation territory.

Yes, this is exactly what I predicted would happen.

The league table is a Manchester sandwich, top end is City, bottom end is Utd

Couple more rumours.

Villa want Holding as their big summer signing Carlos has ruptured his achilles- which is 6 months out.
I wouldn’t be against selling Rob if a too good to refuse offer comes in AND we have a left sided CB lined up to buy. If Villa want him because of injuries then they are desperate, we hold the cards so ask for at least £25m

We’re supposedly interested in Hudson-Odoi from Chelsea. Interesting player as a more traditional winger than our other wide players. Would Chelsea sell to us? His wages are apparently £150k a week which would be problematic considering what Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and Martinelli earn and he could be behind all 3 of them. He does seem like a player whose true potential hasn’t been unlocked yet

Monreal has announced his retirement at the age of 36. Didn’t play a single game last season so I suppose could or perhaps should have retired last summer when he was 35. A very fine player in my view. Not at the level of Sansom and Cole but surely in the next level down with the likes of Tierney and Clichy.

Monreal has announced his retirement at the age of 36. Didn’t play a single game last season so I suppose could or perhaps should have retired last summer when he was 35. A very fine player in my view. Not at the level of Sansom and Cole but surely in the next level down with the likes of Tierney and Clichy.

Couple more rumours.

Villa want Holding as their big summer signing Carlos has ruptured his achilles- which is 6 months out.
I wouldn’t be against selling Rob if a too good to refuse offer comes in AND we have a left sided CB lined up to buy. If Villa want him because of injuries then they are desperate, we hold the cards so ask for at least £25m

I wouldn’t do it, model pro who always does his best. He was never really the same after a bad injury affected his mobility but he is useful to have in the squad.

Certainly no less than 25 million. It wouldn’t make sense and even then it only really is logical if we can find a homegrown LCB close to the price who could grow into the role and those don’t grow on trees. No for me

Limited but certainly better than some we've had over the recent past. Honest, committed and you're not really going to get a much better 4th CB. I think he's also considered one of the leaders in the dressing room. What he did against Leeds last year in going up to the fourth official calling out the racist abuse towards some of our players was the mark of a good pro. A false economy unless the offer is genuinely too good to turn down.

Completely disagree on DeBruyne, Gerrard over Keane? Hmm....
I'll concede Shearer over Bergkamp, but if Bergkamp had spent his years in Italy in the EPL, no contest. Hate to see big Tony and Safe Hands not on there but can't disagree with the choices.

See a few people who were at the game say Vieira whilst looking a bit off the pace and rusty (understandable as first game back from injury), you could see the classy touches.

Looking forward to seeing him play in the first team. As his signing came out of the blue and we haven’t seen him yet, and the first team has a clean bill of health so we haven’t needed him he feels very much like a bonus signing.

I’m convinced there’s at least one more player to come in towards the end of the window

Holding is a tricky one. Decent back-up, good character, well-liked by the team, and now that we finally have some squad depth you don't want us to go back to having a thin squad.

At the same time, he's just 4th choice and he doesn't cover multiple positions, so if Villa comes in and offers 25m it would be hard to say no. That money could go towards signing someone who could potentially improve our starting eleven, and we do have Tomiyasu who could fill in centrally if needed.

Matt law saying Chelsea are willing to spend over £150m on Wesley Fofana, Anthony Gordon, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Frenkie de Jong and Cesare Casadei.

We've had a really good window so far and Saliba is like a new signing but it does feel that to get to the next level we are still a couple of players short of what we need. A CM and a winger if Pépé goes.

Having spent so much already it is fully understandable that we are not prepared to spend inflated over the top fees for players but it would still be disappointing not to have that extra boost a couple of additional players would bring.

If anything is going to happen you would expect it to break pretty soon unless they can sign someone out of the blue like Vieira.