Man Utd fans just need to relax into the chaos and the nonsense because it’s not getting any better. And Como is lovely.

Watch some Champions League football on Wednesday night – Arsenal should enjoy it – and then mail theeditor@football365.com

Champions League > Premier League
Another fantastic night of Champions League footie last night – once again putting to shame the bloated, stunted, so called best league in the world – The Prem. Players/coached actually attempting things – making stuff happen – having fun playing football. I’m sure the Arse will put paid to that tonight.
Shunt LFC

Was football more fun in the beforetimes?
On the debate on whether football was more fun in the past I think there are a few factors.

Firstly there is the age thing, as life moves on there are different priorities, kids, work, new hobbies etc., just don’t have the same time to invest, permission to spend all Sunday in the pub.

Secondly and I think more importantly there is just too much football available. Sky are showing something like 1,500 games. Throw in European football, local leagues, some foreign leagues and you could spend all day watching football. On top of that there are all the podcasts, previews, etc., etc.

The initial magic of the PL was it was different, regular games on TV which was a novelty. The hype was new. Who cares that the football may have been shite, up to that point there was hardly any live football available. It’s why the FA Cup final was such a big deal, Match of the Day and Football Focus were where the majority got their football fix up until then. Going to the pub on a Sunday with your mates to watch games was an event. Now you have every match in your pocket if you so wish, you can barely move for football being thrown at you. The incessant betting ads, promos from partners, it’s overload and numbing.

Personally I watch most of my football on the YouTube highlight videos, which I find is enough.
Mel – Dublin, Berlin, Athlone Town

Man Utd might as well enjoy this now
The way United are struggling, both on and off field, with Martinez et all apparently going after board, you think the best thing to do right now is for everyone to take a chill pill. The team can’t to much in terms of players until Jan. They can hire a new coach, a new management but a relatively unbalanced squad with injuries, that won’t change. You still gotta play likes of Dalot at fullback, and try to figure out who plays no.9 this week.

If that’s the case, we are inevitably doomed, why not just enjoy the journey? Injuries have happened, and have been a lot more severe. I remember us playing Carrick, Fletcher as CBs, Park as RB vs Wolsfburg in CL and winning the game. Or that time we started O’ Shea in midfield and D’ Silva Twins on each wing (forwards, not wingbacks) against Arsenal in a cup game and won.

It is not often that we play CL (sad to say that as a United fan) and that too against Como, in that picturesque stadium will be a first, and Como are probably more excited to host us than anything. Go and freaking enjoy the game. Gotta start a make shift defense, so be it, give that lad Amass who was promised first team football 2 years ago by ETH a try, he knew a thing or 2 of playing academy players (Garnacho, Mainoo).

Play a flexible front 3, popularized by our Dear Sir Alex in 2006/7 in Rooney, CR7 and Tevez, and possibly perfected without a true no.9 by Klopp (Mane, Firminho and Salah). Not saying we are anywhere at that level, but so aren’t Como, or Leeds, or Fulham, or Everton etc

We aren’t facing prime Real Madrid (can’t believe I agree with Carragher here) so go out there and enjoy. I think Carrick was able to achieve this, when he pulled off all restraints put up by Amorim last year, and with no cup games and nothing really at stake, we flourished. Why can’t we do the same, if it is a lost cause, might as well go out with a bang, enjoy the games until Jan and then hand transfer requests amass.
Rahil, MUFC
(Might as well celebrate with a pizza in Italy and throw one at their gaffer for old time’s sake)

Be careful what you wish for, Arsenal fans
“But when moaning about how boring Arsenal are, at least acknowledge the fact that if 16 players are standing in the penalty area, the majority of whom are defending, then there’s not a lot of room to play football. Come out, play man for man and see what happens then” – Stu, France.

Are you sure you want that Stu? Because we have seen what happens then. Brighton came out, played man for man and absolutely battered ye 3-0.
Brian Morrissey. Waterford. Ireland

Why Brighton v Palace should not be a rivalry
Brighton season ticket holder since 1999 and fan/attendee of the club since longer. Believe it or not I’m not mailing to gloat at spanking Crystal Palace 5-0 on Sunday. Just attempting to highlight why it’s ridiculous to call this a rivalry let alone a derby.

Football365 have affirmed several times that Brighton/Palace isn’t a derby and I whole heartedly agree. The definition of a derby is two rival teams from the same local area playing a match. To call it the M23 derby is geographically nonsensically. Brighton & Hove is in East Sussex. The A23 becomes the M23 in West Sussex at junction 11, then becomes the A23 again at junction 7 in Surrey before hitting the Borough of Croydon in Greater London. Not much local about a 46 mile journey between two clubs across four different counties.

I don’t subscribe to the Brighton/Palace rivalry either. Sure, I was happy watching them getting thumped 5-0. But no more than I’d be watching Brighton thump any other team 5-0. I really dislike the toxic element that rivalry/tribalism creates in life let alone in football. Witnessing children calling Palace players “see you next Tuesdays” and being encouraged to do so by their so called parents depresses me. I never jump around when the “jump around if you hate Palace” chant comes around. I sit down. Maybe I’m a Brighton snowflake lefty but in my view “hate” is a strong word which shouldn’t be thrown around lightly. It’s just a game.

So, where does this apparent “hate” come from? From Alan Mullery and Terry Venables not getting on 50 years ago. Big whoop. They played together at Spurs from 1966-1969 and allegedly Terry wasn’t happy when the manager Bill Nicholson made Alan club captain over Terry. They both went into management and crossed paths in a 1976 first round FA cup tie with Alan as Brighton manager and Terry as Palace manager. This was before penalty shoot outs were a thing and when cup replays still existed. It was a 2-2 draw at the Goldstone Ground, followed by a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park. This lead to a third match held at the neutral venue of Stamford Bridge and a nonsense rivalry was born.

Phil Holder put Palace 1-0 up. Peter Ward then had a goal disallowed for Brighton for handball. Then Brighton were awarded a penalty in the 78th minute which Brian Horton scored. The referee ordered it be retaken due to encroachment. Brian failed to score from the next attempt so Palace won 1-0 and went through. Brighton manager Alan Mullery wasn’t happy and as he walked towards the tunnel allegedly had caffeinated beverages thrown in his direction by Palace fans, and in response took a handfull of cash out of his pocket, threw it on the ground and apparently said “That’s all you’re worth Crystal Palace”. And 50 years later parents are still encouraging their children to call Palace players at matches “see you next Tuesdays”. Wow.

This apparent rivalry has formed Brighton’s current identity though which is weird. The club badge originally showed the town shields of Brighton and Hove together. It then became a dolphin on the badge in the very early 70s due to actual dolphins being kept in an underground swimming pool at the Brighton Sealife Centre. That’s a whole other discussion about off-key things, but Brighton & Hove Albion were nicknamed The Dolphins as a result. Following the 1976 so-called dramas Brighton & Hove Albion fans decided to counter Palace fans chant of “Eagles” with the retort of “Seagulls”. And since then the club has had the logo of a bird that mugs tourists of any food they have in their hands rather than Flipper (80s reference for those who don’t know).

To summarise, I prefer the seagull logo over a dolphin logo as I suffer from thalassophobia. And a whole flock of seagulls live at the AMEX and regularly descend into the stadium during matches which is endearing. You’d never catch dolphins doing that. But that is the only thing I care about in terms of the so called Brighton Palace rivalry that basically started with two ex-teammates from Spurs who are both dead now not really getting along. I “hate” all the toxic nonsense in football and seeing children being indoctrinated into hating others when it’s just a game pains me given how that planted seed could grow into wider unhealthy attitudes in adult life. Maybe I’m just a Brighton and Hove snowflake lefty though.
Danny (one love) Brighton

Why Man City will get more than slap on the wrist
So reading the suspected Man City punishment (taken with a massive grain of salt because of the source), I feel everyone is underestimating it, and here is why:

People have talked about, and the BBC even posted an article, about losses relating to prize money and relegation. That is broadly the larger scale of the potential claims.

But (and this is just a personal example I thought of as it is the club I support) things go a lot deeper. Take the season where Mourinho came 2nd to City with ‘one of his greatest achievements’. We all mocked him but now, technically, he managed to win the title with that Man U team which makes the comment more reasonable. The same, I believe, goes for Solskjær.

Anyway, to the point, does he not rightly have an argument that, as a PL winner, he would have been given more time/potentially not been sacked? He would have been able to have more backing, at the very least. There’s certainly grounds for a claim.

Another example (to expand a bit) is Liverpool missing out on several titles – I assume as winners the players would have been entitled to bigger bonuses and, again, could each of them not justifiably claim for these as City ultimately committed fraud?

I feel the PL will hammer City into the ground now and draw a line under it rather than give them what everyone considers a large slap on the wrist and invite endless claims to go on and on. The longer the situation is allowed to continue, the worse it looks for them. City being tied up in court for years by…well, just about everyone, means we can’t move past it.
Andrew Massey

You can be in a cartel and still fail
Hesh (LFC) email was not the flex they thought it was. FFP means that clubs with higher revenue can spend more on players (I think it was 85% of revenue on players). That means the big clubs are forever given an advantage and disallows smaller clubs spending big to bet on their future success based upon that spending.

That’s not an opinion, that’s counting. (H/T James O’Brien)

The fact that Liverpool have STILL struggled to be successful despite this enduring, persistent, advantage they are bestowed just shows how crap the club is, NOT that things are fair or a not a “cartel”.
Colin