Evening all, and welcome to Manchester United v Stoke City!

Pogba strides through the middle of midfield - he doesn't look to be towards the left - finds Lukaku, who finds Lingard. Shaqiri brings him down, but United make nothing of the free-kick.

The 18-year-old Josh Tymon gets an early touch, and then Valencia lumps the ball forward at no one.

"This is the Premier League, where anything can happen," says Alan Parry. He's only missing an "and usually does". Off we go!

Here come the players! Valencia has had the armband back off Pogba - I've not a scooby why.

The rain is properly going for it. Paul Lambert is peering through it like a jilted lover in Corrie.

Sky reckon United will play 4-2-3-1, and if that's so, it's not only Martial who's being moved after playing well, but also Paul Pogba, who was superb against Everton in an advanced role on the left. Perhaps Mourinho will play a V in midfield, with Matic at its apex, and Lingard and Pogba it's two points. Or perhaps four defenders plus Matic are deemed more than enough to cope with Stoke.

Jose Mourinho manages to get out of his pre-match interview saying very little. His verdict on yesterday's game: "a good resukt for Liverpool, a bad result for Manchester City".

Meanwhile, United's left-back is Luke Shaw, starting his fourth straight game for the first time in his United career. He really should be their first choice for the next generation, but needs to take advantage of this oportunity.

Oh, whoops - in the team discussion, I forgot to note that Stephen Ireland - Stephen Ireland! - starts for Stoke! For the first time since May 2016!

Gary Neville is talking about playing against Guardiola's Barcelona thinking "you've gotta be able to get at Pique, he can't run, and Mascherano isn't a defender." Except the possession was such that you couldn't.

I doubt, though, if City can pull off a similar trick against quality opposition. In the league, for sure - we've seen it. But good as Fernandinho, De Bruyne and Silva are, they're not close to being as good as Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta were, nor do they have the threat of Messi. Which isn't to say they can't win the European Cup, they can; but they'll have to take a few shots to do so.

Mazal tov to Red News on 250 issues. A phenomenal achievement over 30 years.

it's raining in Manchester. Cue hilarious jokes.

An absolute hero of the game.

This is a shame, in a way - Mkhitaryan is a talent. The problem, though, is that he is also feeble, only good when the going's good and apparently incapable of putting in a shift. So when not on his game, he is useless, and as such, it would be no great surprise to see him emerge at Arsenal.

Niedzwiecki tells us that Paul Lambert, Stoke's new manager, popped in for a brief chat with the players before the match, but isn't otherwise involved in the game.