First let's get the bad out of the way, Carra got injured. Not seriously, but he'll at least miss tonight's match with Toulouse. It couldn't have happened at a more opportune time as we should be able to manage without him tonight as well as next weekend against Derby County and then there's a two week break for international play. Looks like he wouldn't have been available for England anyhow and word on the street is, either will Steven Gerrard. If you can imagine the heartbreak I'm feeling for Steve McClaren right now, you're delusional.
The only other negative from this is that it exposes our backline even more. We're probably going to have go out and buy someone or bring up Stephen Darby and/or Emiliano Insua from the reserves. The latter I think is ready, but I'm not so sure about the former.
That brings up some of the best news I've heard in a long while. Seems like Rafa has come to his senses and sold Gabriel Paletta to Boca Juniors. That's one nightmare I can stop having. Paletta was just not disciplined enough for the Premiership. He had all the other tools, but got caught out of position way too many times. It's a shame he never worked out and I wish him all the luck in Argentina where he should be fine.
Also Fabio Aurelio has returned to training early and could be ready to go as early as after the international break in mid-September. He could also be a huge boost to our backline problem, providing cover at left back for Riise and freeing up Arbeloa to cover the centre and right back spots.
In other good news, we won. That's twelve matches undefeated including preseason, not bad. I've watched the match a couple of more times and pretty much got it spot on the first time. I'm going to do player grades in a little bit as well as a 'What will Rafa do?' for the Toulouse match.