cosmicway

La nuit du magicien Olivier.

We do not erect statues to the living. I know of one or two occasions but people thought it was kitsch.

I expect we are going to win this, bar a Zouma accident.

Abraham has a problem with centre of gravity. Too high up.

Anyway Klop is our opponent.

Abraham should have won this for us and Giroud if he came earlier.

Klop held at Brighton - first place tomorrow.

I don't like the new system and it's not as if with the old system we, CFC, could not build a powerful team if we had the money.

The comparison between Pele and Maradona is based on who achieved most in his career. This is not accurate because it depends on the teammates also. Thus Pele won three world cups, but in the second he did not even play (in Chile 1962 he was injured in the second group stage match against Checoslovakia - it was Garincha, Vava and Amarildo who did the work after that). Maradona won one but if the Argentine squad of 1990 was a little better he could have won two. Anyway Pele won three world cups and two intercontinental cups (with Santos 1962, 1963 - they defeated AC Milan and Benfica). The intercontinental final was a strong run affair those days - lost its significance in the mid seventies. Diego won the Italian scudetto, UEFA cup (strong competition then - not like today's Europa) and the 1986 world cup. I don't care about the hand of God because fooling the referee is part of the day's work (and Tierry Henri also did it). Pele never played for a European club. The South American teams were not giving their players so easily in the 60s. Inter Milan offered the record sum of 300,000 sterling - Santos were asking for 500,000 sterling. Diego went to Barcelona first then to Napoli. On paper Pele has more titles to his credit but Diego was better when seen as a unit after all. Difficult to distinguish. Johann Cruyff is an also run and as for Messi he is Barca but his record in the national team is woeful.

Diego died yesterday in Argentina. May God rest his soul.

He scored from various angles. But I mean the way he dips the ball over the goalies heads when in one to one confrontation. That's the type of situation we 're talking about here. Nobody had this kind of coolness Gert Muller of old or Greaves maybe, I don't remember now. Keegan too. But the Argentinian I 've been following for years.

Those two missed chances in the pics don't look at all like he panicked to me (the Morata disease). Bad contact, especially the second one against Rennes. But also against United. Just a bit more concentration is needed.

I said he does n't look even remotely like one of those cases. But some improvement may be possible. p.s does n't - the press daemon

As cool executioners go the best ever was Nacho Scocco imo (Argentinian - River Plate - played for Sunderland too for a spell at the age of 36). The least capable was Alvaro Morata, his brain went funny when infront of goal. It's a trick of the eye sometimes with those players. They do manage to place themselves in good positions in the penalty box and when the ball reaches them at the right angle they score some fantastic goals. It's when they have to stop and think that you see the shortcomings. There was this other one the Cypriot Okkas (problem boy like Morata). One time one of his teammates managed a splendid pass, the defense was split and he raced alone towards the goalkeeper. The tv speaker was one who supported his team (Olympiakos) and he went "Georgevitch, what a terrific pass, and it's Okkas now with only the goalkeeper to beat and er-er-oh it's Okkas, it's a certain miss - forget it". True to form Okkas kicked the ball straight to the keeper for an easy catch. Timo does n't remotely look like a Morata but maybe he can improve his finishing touch.

I don't understand why Timo is losing so many open goal chances. He certainly does n't look like the sort of player who gets blinded infront of goal, like Alvaro Morata. Maybe some Nacho Scocco finishing lessons ?

We need to draw against Sevilla to secure first place in the group. I don't fancy the remainder of the opposition in the CL are anything so formidable. Bayern of course we ought to respect and maybe Klop a little.

Fumes. I was about to place a bet Chelsea handicap -2 and the b***dy betting site stuck.

First in the group !

3-0, well done. Pool had the bat's bone again.

The Russian team was of the level of Wolves-Palace. Mendy was excellent.

I watched from Spanish tv channel. Their commentator said "penal" after the first replay. There was no long time lapse before they saw it, making it impossible for VAR-Atkinson to come back to it. I expect the commentators of SKY saw it likewise.

What do you think about Timo and Kai ? I think Timo is doing well and against Sevilla it was an exception. Today he did not have any real good chances. But Kai -for the moment- is for Aston Villa.

No lottery ticket. Some of the good Chelsea names have demolished goal posts from that angle.

In the last minute Kante had the ball in a good shooting position. Just try it and let De Gea save it for heavens sake. He kept dribbling himself and the match ended with a United attack.