IAN LADYMAN: Why Bruno Fernandes must keep the Man United captaincy and more

Much noise around Bruno Fernandes and his suitability as Manchester United captain, some of it led by my colleague Oliver Holt.

'Excellent player, never a leader in a million years,' said the Daily Mail's Chief Sports Writer on X.

It's a commonly held opinion. I mean, do United and their supporters really want a skipper who gets so upset by a referee brushing against his shirt before a penalty that he then lands his spot-kick in the River Thames?

But consider this simple question. If not Bruno for the United armband then who?

Certainly from Sunday's team sheet, there are no credible candidates.

Harry Maguire? United have tried and failed with that one. Luke Shaw? Can he be trusted to stay fit? Casemiro? Not really. Matthijs De Ligt? Maybe but the Dutch defender always looks like the type who has it all on to look after his own game, never mind everybody else's.

Viewed in this context, the argument for Bruno is clear and it's lent weight by the fact that the Portuguese forward did prove himself worthy of the job last season.

The 30-year-old will never be perfect. He remains too emotional on occasion and too voluble when it comes to referees.

But good captains lead by what they do and Bruno's levels of performance and commitment last season provided an example that - had others been able or willing to follow - would have led Ruben Amorim's team to a Premier League finish some way higher than their dismal 15th.

Cates' flawless MOTD debut but is the brand diluted?

There is no doubt as to Kelly Cates' pedigree as a broadcaster and her debut as one of the Match of the Day trio of rotating hosts was as flawless as one would expect. The show will miss some of Gary Lineker's familiarity and experience but not his at times suffocating ego.

But it did jar a little to then see Cates fronting Sky's Sunday afternoon game between Fulham and United at Craven Cottage.

Match of the Day remains BBC's flagship football programme, a bespoke piece of television.

Does Cates' prominence in the all-consuming world of satellite football coverage dilute the MOTD brand a little?

Personally, I think it does.

Fulham hierarchy relaxed about Marco's moans

Fulham manager Marco Silva is unhappy with the fact his club haven't signed the players he wants this summer and has said so. At boardroom level they will not stress too much.

Silva is a coach who continues to improve year on year but he has also a habit of pushing the boundaries and testing the patience of those he works for.

When he was linked with the Tottenham job last June, Mail Sport spoke to a senior official at the club who just laughed.

'We are used to this with Marco,' he said.

'These stories come and go and strangely enough they usually start in Portugal.

'But in the end they settle down and Marco stays here…on what is a very good contract indeed!'

Man City's evolution is clear, a title challenge is not

An early season quiz question.

Of the 11 Manchester City players who started last season's home Premier League campaign against Ipswich a year ago, how many survived to play against Tottenham on Saturday?

Incredibly, the answer is just three. Rico Lewis, Ruben Dias and Erling Haaland.

If that doesn't tell us how much things have changed at City then nothing does and whether Pep Guardiola can engineer a title challenge amid all that evolution remains to be seen.

Certainly, the City manager has questions to answer about his choice of goalkeeper.

New signing James Trafford must have a deep list of qualities. City have signed him, Newcastle wanted to sign him and England manager Thomas Tuchel is a known fan. Trafford will be in the squad for next month's games against Andorra and Serbia when Tuchel reveals it this Friday.

But at times, Trafford looks so far from the finished article that it's frightening. Last time he was in the Premier League with Burnley two seasons ago, he was bullied in the air and lost his place. On Saturday as City lost 2-0 to Spurs, he was all over the shop with his feet. None of it inspired confidence.

Joao Palhinha is back at home in the Premier League

Tottenham deserved their win against City and it's heartening to see their Brazilian forward Richarlison front and centre after some personal and professional difficulties over the last couple of years.

But it has been Thomas Frank's move to shore up the centre of his team that sits at the heart of Spurs' excellent start to the new season.

Frank's predecessor Ange Postecoglou made much of last season's defensive injury problems on his way to finishing 17th in the Premier League but always seemed less keen to discuss how opposing teams could pour through his midfield virtually unopposed whenever Spurs lost the ball.

All good teams must have some kind of reliability at their core and the partnership of Rodrigo Bentancur and new signing Joao Palhinha are the platform on which Frank's new Tottenham are being built.

Spurs fans are right to be miffed at losing Eberechi Eze to Arsenal. They dithered too long on that one. But Frank is nobody's fool. He arrived at Tottenham from Brentford after Postecoglou's sacking this summer fully aware of what the real problems were.

Palhinha was excellent during his time at Fulham and I expect him to be so in the north of the capital.

It won't be Eze replacing Eberechi for Crystal Palace

Arsenal will need Eze even more than they thought after injuries to Bukayo Saka - expected to miss a month of football - and Martin Odegaard against Leeds and his smile of gratitude and almost disbelief as he was introduced to the crowd on Saturday was a lovely moment.

How Crystal Palace will cope without their star player, on the other hand, is rather scary.

Of the 115 games the FA Cup winners have played in the Premier League since August 2022, their win percentage with Eze in the team stands at 36 per cent. Without him? 6.7 per cent.

Ouch.

Clinical Coventry put stats to the sword

Still with stats, performance of the day outside the Premier League was undoubtedly the one which saw Frank Lampard's Coventry beat QPR 7-1 to go third in the table.

Lampard continues to do a great job and the fact there were almost 30,000 inside the Coventry Building Society arena is indicative of forward progress.

Nevertheless Coventry's XG (expected goals) from Saturday's game was just 1.27. From their eight shots on target, seven went in!!

Sometimes, it's just your day.

Loyalty is everything to Evangelos Marinakis

Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo sounded like a man trying to put a lion back into its cage after his team's draw at Crystal Palace.

'There is going to be a resolution,' he said in regards to the issues with owner Evangelos Marinakis that he chose to make public last week.

'It is going to be fine'.

Time will tell but Marinakis has his fingers in every single area of that football club and if he feels slighted then Nuno will be on his way at some point soon. To Marinakis loyalty, is simply everything.

Last season, the Daily Mail spent time with two of the Forest owner's closest and most trusted allies in Greece.

Asked how hard they tried to intervene when Marinakis was about to do something they viewed as a mistake, they looked a little baffled.

'Mistakes?' said one.

'Mr Marinakis doesn't make mistakes.'

West Ham have to hope to keep hold of Jarrod Bowen

West Ham will be at Forest next Sunday and already that looks like a defining game in the dismal Graham Potter era. How fortunate he is still to have his captain.

With his former team-mate Mohammed Kudus now at Spurs and other skilful forward players like Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo on the move this summer, it's utterly baffling that a player as talented as Jarrod Bowen is not on everybody's list.

Liverpool want Aleksandar Isak and Newcastle want Yoane Wissa. If anyone wakes up to what Bowen can offer over the remaining days of the transfer window then West Ham really will be in trouble. Without their captain they will almost certainly go down.