By Tim Stannard

1) Jose Mourinho already under pressure at Old Trafford

Results not up to par. Playing style bland and ineffective. Manager criticizing key players for not delivering under pressure?

Sounds rather familiar to last season’s debacle with Chelsea for Jose Mourinho who is sitting atop the Monday pressure cooker across the world’s football press, after a third successive defeat for his Manchester United side, in Sunday’s EPL loss to Watford.

And aside from Manchester United fans who were not really expecting this after King Zlatan and Paul Pogba were brought in to the Theatre of Dreams, the rest of globe seems to be enjoying themselves.

Despite all the hullaballoo, Jose Mourinho still seems fairly safe and snug in the Old Trafford hot seat, with odds on the Special One being the first special firing of the season at 33-1. Those might reduce a touch on Wednesday though if United do not beat Northampton in the EFL Cup which you can catch on beIN SPORTS CONNECT on Wednesday from 2:30PM ET / 11:30AM PT.

2) James is star of show for Madrid, but Casemiro set to miss out in midweek match

On other side of the coin of happiness, Real Madrid fans are all with the smiles after Sunday’s win over Espanyol both equals a league record of 16 straight victories and was also achieved without Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, who were both back in training on Monday. In fact, it was a triple whammy of joy as not only did James Rodriguez finally start a game, but also scored too in the 2-0 victory.

The one downside though is the absence of the leg-knacked Casemiro who had to leave the field early in the Espanyol game and is a major doubt for Wednesday’s Villarreal clash, which is live on beIN SPORTS from 1:55PM ET / 10:55AM PT, and then followed by the slightly tasty clash between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

3) Ben Arfa still suffering Unai Emery exile

Ben Arfa must have run over Unai Emery’s cat and then gone back and done it again.

For the third time running, the forward has been left out of the PSG squad. This time the increasingly-exiled Frenchman misses out on Tuesday’s Ligue Un clash against Dijon with the club’s Spanish boss certainly feeling that the former Lyon and Newcastle United man doesn’t yet cut the mustard.

4) Bellerin to be latest Dani Alves replacement for Barcelona

EARLY TRANSFER NEWS! It may take a few months, it may take a year, it may never happen. But Barcelona's attempts to fill the Dani Alves hole continue with stories that the Camp Nou club will be upping their pursuit of Arsenal's Hector Bellerin.

5) Barton’s Rangers life goes from bad to worse

Joey Barton's tenure with Rangers up in Scotland is not exactly going to plan. The midfielder and walking headline-maker was part of the recent 5-1 loss to Celtic in the Old Firm derby in the SPL and has since had quite the disagreement with a teammate, last week. 

Barton was told to stay away for the club to cool his heels after the riff-raff with Andy Halliday. On Monday, after a meeting with Rangers coach, Mark Warburton, Barton was suspended for three weeks to "assess all that has happened." All the more time for promoting his new book, rather handily. 

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The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.