Match Reports

This is hard to process, all of this.

The weekend just gone was awful, with a defeat that was as damaging as it was obvious, some unacceptable performances and a miserable league table that suggests both that European qualification will be a challenge and that the mackems are better than us. Maybe give it until Christmas would be my advice to anyone losing their stuff.

In the meantime, we had the small matter of (checks notes) the Champions League.

Here cometh Benfica, who the likes of me will remember as destructors of our promising 2012-13 Europa League campaign, but today resemble a lower rank option in European competition, if their defeat at home to Qarabag in the first round of matches was anything to go by. This game could be pivotal indeed.

If we could complement our win at USG with another three Champions League points at home, Europe looks bright and we have a basis to kick on in a busy week of domestic matters. Falter against a side that have regalvanised since the appointment of Mourinho and we may be mired in a struggle on all fronts.

I am happy to report...