This part of the football season is my hands-down favourite. The all-too-brief lull between the fixtures being announced and the transfer market getting serious is just so fecund with hope and potential. We live in an acquisitive, consumerist age where any problem can be solved with a shiny new toy. So Liverpool fans can believe that if only they can bring in Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk their defence will no longer buckle against teams in the bottom half. Wengeristas will feel confident that buying Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon will stop Arsenal being such snowflakes. Football really does have a fantasy element right now: Bournemouth, Brighton and Burnley are all squatting in the Champions League spots, albeit only alphabetically. Anything is possible.
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