The last edition of The Football Notebook was almost entirely consumed by college football, which I suppose is unavoidable when five of the top seven teams in the country lose on the same Saturday. European football, however, wasn’t particularly concerned with my editorial calendar, and while I was busy attempting to comprehend everything happening on this side of the Atlantic, the Premier League and the rest of the continent provided plenty of material that deserved more than a passing mention.
I’ve spent the last couple of days thinking about three clubs in particular, largely because their circumstances couldn’t be much different. Manchester United is down in the dumps, while Lazio and Brighton are on top of the world and feel like nothing can ever bring them down. It’s a fascinating dichotomy, one I attempt to dissect to its core in the following paragraphs.
With that said, this week’s edition is expansive, so there’s no time to waste. Let’s open up the notebook, shall we?
