think the derby this coming Sunday (2 days from now) will be hard for Manchester City. United is doing OK since that awful first match in Hull and despite last night’s rival (quite new in European football) being generally weak, United handled it very well. Yesterday we walked in Town for a couple of hours and saw salespeople of match scarfs in the streets.

Manchester United used to be almost synonymous with Manchester. Not anymore.

t is turning out to be a good winning streak for Enzo, with a fourth win in a row and this time a different tournament and difficult away game against a very potent rival. Just weeks ago, after the Community Shield defeat, it looked like there was going to be another loss, this time at home (against Bournemouth), but 0-1 became 2-1 in a matter of minutes. So now, instead, Enzo is off at a better start then Pep’s a decade ago.

There’s a derby coming up on Sunday, then a straightforward Carabao Cup match.

Video summary.

‘m not surprised. Arsenal did not easily win at home.

Arsenal has beaten Chelsea (video), Chelsea had some good chances, but Manchester City remains on top for now.

Big test next week in the derby but first (Tuesday) a hard game in UEFA Champions League.

A week after the derby we’ll go near Old Trafford a few times. It’s our anniversary.

think that it’s fair to say Man United has true potential this season. After a rather poor start this season (losing away to Hull, 0-2) and after a strong end to the last season (winning 3-0) we see it getting ahead and showing signs of resurgence, even after signing up the coach with a proper contract. Even… as in the past this led to disappoitnment and regrets.

Is this current game worthy of appraisement? Everton struggled on many fronts as a club.

Next week’s derby will be… interesting.

In terms of stats, in this away game Man United has been the better team so far.

t’s Sunday and two interesting matches are due. One is the derby’s host for next week, Manchester United, and the other a difficult match (a London derby) for Arsenal. Both started this season with two wins. Only one (or neither) can get a third win.

t’s fair to see that Enzo started on a strong note after an appalling Community Shield match. ManCity is now top with a comfy gap, awaiting results from other matches.

‘ve noticed many strange things today in the live pages of Manchester City matches and checked in two very different browsers to ensure it wasn’t browser-specific. The score does not show up, no related information either (minute, assists, goals). No line-up, stats, scores. Only “Commentary” and video show up, the rest is conspicuously broken/missing.

These pages were always bloated and full of DRM (no way to disable videos either, only pause them).

So I’ll be looking for alternatives to the official site. The admins went too far.

To keep an eye on a match should not take up that many resources. Now it’s not even working.

The official PL site is no better. Also horrible bloat.

think I neglected to mention a sort of “uptime privilege” this morning. I realised this only later. It’s a kind of an “RK” privilege one can forget about. You take this for granted when you’re next to international games or actions.

My computers have high uptime records owing to good electricity infrastructure (reliability/uptime/availability); we have a sort of fortune or the mere luck of having very reliable electric grid (near a very large and famous stadium) with persistent connections and decent hardware nearby, fallbacks included, with no natural disasters, not even floods (we’re in a slope).

In some parts of the world they have extreme weather this year, including prohibitive costs of living (UK minimum wage a lot higher than the average in Europe), war, conscription, and worse. Here, unlike Ukraine, no shelter time (or risk of being hit by missiles), is expected, so carrying on as usual is almost always possible. Until someone from another continent pays $130,000 to drag you down to London. But even then, your computers remain turned on at home.

have been goalkeeping since I was a young kid. My body type suited that position and I naturally became good enough to win some medals and be the goalkeeper for Computer Science at the Victoria University of Manchester (before the UMIST merger). I still have the kit. I don’t wear it much; I want to preserve it.

Goalkeeping is not as easy as it seems (despite being idle a lot of the time) and a lot boils down to reflexes as there’s not much time to think or plan. Goalkeepers can be significantly older than the average player on the field because they compensate with experience and seniority for a declining stamina and inability to jump far/high. Many goals are scored because the goalkeeper didn’t do well enough, e.g. stood at the wrong place, spilled the ball, dribbled too much.

Goalkeepers that are good not only stop balls from entering the net; they know when to catch, when to hit the ball down to the ground, then catch (no rival player nearly and fast/strong shot – making a direct catch riskier), when to pinch/parry the ball over the bar, when to deflect the ball back into play (if a defender nearby can take the rebound), when to carry the ball, when to punch/kick the ball (and how far), and so on…

There’s not much time to think about all this. The decision needs to be a reflex, based on who’s near you, how strong the shot is, the position relative to the bar etc.

Spatial awareness is important (distance to bars, which players stand where, and whose team they play for).

It’s a lot to do with gut feeling, it’s like playing an instrument.

There is also a lot to be said about how to handle different ways of taking penalties (e.g. kicker stops near the ball to trick the keeper into jumping prematurely) and one-on-one situations where the keeper can run outwards to face the player or stay close to goal, wherein the position of the feet can help obstruct a kick, but not while “on the move” (must know when to stop moving, prepare to stretch out limbs).

There’s a lot of fine strategy involved in goalkeeping, many different scenarios to learn from (in order to improve). That’s why goalkeepers need their own dedicated coach like Caballero, usually a very experienced but greying (or balding) keeper like aging gymnasts who focus on “theory”, not “practice” (anymore). They “pass the knowledge”…

I like goalkeeping, but when mistakes are made it can be harsh.

went out last night after 9PM. Rianne and I saw the barriers being set up for today’s home match:

Enzo says they want to compete for trophies and the most prestigious one is the one involving the most matches: PL.

The “cups” typically involve just winning 6 or 7 games in a row, sometimes in penalties. That’s little compared to 38 games against hard rivals (not teams from lower leagues).

So far it’s looking positive for EnzoFC, which brings many new players (many left).