Andre, what's today? Why, it's Thursday night - Europa League time!

While I realize there's no actual Chelsea interest in this competition (yet?) - although Thibaut Courtois's Atletico Madrid are in action - we had plenty of fun & schadenfreude yesterday and both Tottenham and Liverpool are ripe for continuing that shaky moral ground vibe.

Our comrades in Russia, as has now become normal, have kicked off early - Rubin Kazan (current home of ex-Chelsea trainee Gokhan Tore) have an early 1-0 lead over some other random team.

In about 5-10 minutes time, the rest of the early matches kick off, including Spurs away in scenic Maribor, Slovenia. The late matches (3pm EDT) will see Liverpool hosting Guus Hiddink's (and Yuri Zhirkov's) Anzhi Makahaltakaktatavahnancatchakhtala and Atletico Madrid hosting something called an Academica de Coimbra. Coimbra have a Brazilian player called Makelele on the team - isn't that just the ultimate oxymoron?

Discuss.