With the Champions League now back in full swing, it’s time to welcome back something of a forgotten powerhouse (of sorts) as Ajax look to be well on the way to qualification from Group H in this season's competition. This following them having lost to eventual finalists Tottenham in the semi-finals last season, letting a two goal lead slip in the process.
The NFL's series of London games are well underway at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Oakland Raiders facing Chicago Bears to kick things off before Wembley takes on hosting duties at the beginning of November. Jacksonville Jaguars, owned by Shahid Khan- who of course occupies a similar position in the boardroom at Fulham- will be taking on the Houston Texans, in a collision almost as literal as the NFL Show following Match Of The Day on a Saturday evening.
Every top domestic league has up to three dominant teams across their history, but each league is also prone to the rare anomaly. The Portuguese league is traditionally dominated by the threesome of Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon, who have won all but 2 titles since its inception in the 1934/35 season. But for the time being, the Primeira Liga is witnessing its own aberration.
The latest Portsmouth-Southampton derby, a League Cup clash ending in something of a trouncing for the hosts, was deemed notable by local media not just for the one sided nature of the scoreline but a comparative lack of trouble on the terraces given the pall of violence that has hung over the fixture in recent years. But footage subsequently emerged of a Pompey fan aiming a punch at a police horse, Luna, in an act of wanton cruelty in the aftermath of his side's heaviest defeat by their red & white neighbours from down the road in some years....
As their near neighbours crack on with hosting the Rugby World Cup, having kicked off with a win over another former football World Cup host nation- Russia- the Chinese appear to have taken a leaf out of the Brave Blossoms' book & started to look into the option of naturalising players for Team Dragon...