Image source, @MJMaxwell

Michael Maxwell:, external On a friend's stag we played football with Perry Groves & he did a great job in a pink lycra morph suit.

I'm assuming that's the stag wearing the morph suit, not Perry Groves?

BBC Radio 5 live

Former Blackburn striker Benni McCarthy speaking on BBC Radio 5 live: "Liverpool have got into a pattern of buying people and then not adapting their style to fit. You saw it when they bought Andy Carroll. He was tearing up trees with Newcastle and their more direct style, but Liverpool wanted him to play a different system and the goals dried up.

"If you are willing to spend that amount of money on a player then you have to accommodate him."

Head on over to the MOTD Facebook page,, external where you will find a lot of funny stories of improvised kit, as requested by Danny Baker on Radio 5 live this morning, including this...

Ruaidhri Campbell Laird: It was fancy dress in our rec league and I dressed as Batman but forgot my shorts so played with the most see through black tights imaginable and a black bin bag for a cape. Could barely see through the mask...

Thanks Ruaidhri, that gave me the perfect opportunity to dig out a picture of Delboy and Rodney dressed as Batman and Robin

BBC Radio 5 live

Image source, Reuters

Former Blackburn striker Benni McCarthy, speaking on BBC Radio 5 live: "It certainly looks like Raheem Sterling is Liverpool's first-choice striker. His two goals against Bournemouth in the League Cup are more than the other strikers have scored, so he deserves to stay in that role.

"Mario Balotelli is talented but his head is not in the right place. Rickie Lambert has played OK, and got a few goals but he has not got enough to dig Liverpool out of the hole they are in."

Jason Roberts
On BBC Radio 5 live

"Raheem Sterling is not yet a striker, and you could see some of that with the chances he missed against Manchester United - but he looks like he is warming to the role with Liverpool.

"I think that the bigger problem is how Liverpool are playing. They don't have the same pace up front, the same urgency from the first whistle.

"Mario Balotelli and Rickie Lambert are more targetmen than players who will run in behind. You have to look at the buys that Liverpool have made and they don't fit their style."

Both Lawro and Olly Murs reckon Liverpool will draw tomorrow, in their big game against Arsenal at Anfield. That clash promises to be one of the games of the weekend. Naturally, it was the subject of plenty of discussion on 5 live's Friday football show...

Danny Baker has asked for your tales of improvised kit. And you've responded in numbers via Twitter..., external

Alan: We piled into a carpet fitters van to away games, anyone that forgot shin pads was supplied with underlay.

Ian Brown: The goalie of the Haydock High school team once wore wellies.

Image source, PA

Managed to check out Lawro's predictions yet? We don't let the great man have Christmas off, you know. In fact, this week we've pitted him against Olly Murs.

Murs, from Essex, is a Manchester United fan. He is backing United to extend their six-game winning run when they play Aston Villa on Saturday, but says he is not getting carried away with talk they are in the title race.

"I think we have got a chance of challenging," he said. "But let's take it one step at a time with Van Gaal's philosophy - it might take another two years for him to get the right players in and, for me, getting back in the Champions League is the priority."

Image source, Getty Images

Danny Baker has clearly hit on a goldmine of a subject by asking for your improvised kit tales. Here are some more, shared via the medium of Facebook..., external

Neil Seach: I had to use two Norwich City football programmes as shin pads one Sunday morning, made all the more insulting by the fact I am an Ipswich Town fan. Scored the winning header but there was no way I was going to consider them lucky, never forgot my shinnies again though!

Tom Newey: We had our house football last week, one kid forgot his shin pads so he had a hymn book and a colander to use as protection.

BBC Radio 5 live

Former Blackburn Rovers striker Benni McCarthy, on Hatem Ben Arfa's problems at Hull (10:12): "The work you have to put in to the English game you don't realise when you come from abroad. You think watching you will be able to skin this player or that, but it doesn't happen.

"When I came to Blackburn and was told about 'running in the channels', I'd never heard this expression. I couldn't understand. Do you want me to run or score goals? 'I'm not Paul Dickov I once told Mark Hughes.'"

Ben Arfa played just eight times for Hull but Newcastle boss Alan Pardew says he will not return to the Magpies - his parent club.

BBC Radio 5 live

Hull City boss Steve Bruce this week told reporters Hatem Ben Arfa's career at the club is over.

"I'm disappointed more than anything," Bruce told BBC Radio Humberside. "We brought him in on a wave of publicity and there has been no fall-out or slanging match. His views of the game are different to mine."

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester City might be without a recognised striker, but Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has to make do without eight of his players this afternoon. That's not ideal when you are playing a Manchester United side who are unbeaten in their last 18 league matches at Villa Park since a 3-1 defeat on the opening day of the 1995-96 season (W12, D6).

That, incidentally, is the longest unbeaten away run in any fixture in top-flight history. The goal-scorers in 1995? Ian Taylor, Mark Draper and Dwight Yorke for Villa, with David Beckham netting late on for United.

Here are some more of your improvised kit tales, fresh from the MOTD Facebook page, external

Ron Jansen:, external I know a guy who forgot got his shorts and wore a plastic garbage bag for shorts... It eventually fell off and he played in his undies...

Ian Jenkins:, external Picked the plastic bag up out of the garage with my boots in only to find it was the wrong bag. Turned up with 5lb of potatoes.

Image source, AP

Manchester City get us started today, when they host Crystal Palace in the Premier League's early kick-off. The Blues are without a recognised striker and there is talk that James Milner might start up front for them. Is there any position Milner can't play?

City had a similar striking crisis in the nineties, and they put centre-half Michel Vonk up front. Vonk was like Tony Adams without the footballing ability. Needless to say, it didn't work out.

Danny Baker is clearly on to something with his request for examples of improvised kit as your stories are flooding in via Twitter, external and MOTD Facebook., external Here are some quality examples from the latter...

Phillip Dean:, external I'm a football referee and forgot my watch. So lucky for me there was a church near the pitch with a massive clock and I had to use that keep track of the time.

Jordan Horne:, external Wore a black goalie top once and ref told me I had to take it off because I might confuse him wearing same colour top as him. He was being serious to.

Josh Galer:, external Not so much personal kit but, we had to use plain flour to mark the the full football pitch out for a Sunday league game a few years ago because we couldn't access out storage cupboard. Actually didn't look too bad!

Image source, PA

Had a look at the festive fixtures yet? Managed to digest it all? No need... BBC Sport's Mike Henson has done it all for you. In summary, Manchester City have the perfect chance to make up more ground on Chelsea, United manager Louis van Gaal is not happy about leaving the family at home to visit Tottenham and Leicester have got it tough. Have a gander.

Oh.. and feel free to send in examples of festive football wear like the Manchester City jumper (above).

I like that from Benni McCarthy (see below): "People don't give you as much stick as they normally do". See... even football fans get gripped by Christmas cheer.

BBC Radio 5 live

So this weekend marks the start of a hectic run of Premier League fixtures with four games arriving between now and New Year's Day.

Former Blackburn Rovers striker Benni McCarthy tells BBC Radio 5 live: "From coming from the Continent to here it was completely different.

"You really feel a change in atmosphere, a festive one at the ground and I think people don't give you as much stick as they do normally. People are more cheerful at football games.

"I used to think it was too many games in a short space of time."

Carl Jenkinson, on loan at West Ham from Arsenal, is convinced that a place in Europe for the Hammers next season is very much theirs for the taking. Speaking to the Guardian, he said:, external "European football would be fantastic. That's the goal and everyone's just working hard to achieve that. But it's not unrealistic."

On his show on Radio 5 live this morning, Danny Baker is asking for examples of improvised kit. Here's an early taster of what clobber some of you guys have come up with out of desperate necessity...

James Layton-Hill:, external I was at a year 9 school match where one of the opposition players had maths exercise books down his socks instead of shinpads

Adrian Smith:, external Played in goal in a Sunday League game once and they promised me all the kit but I had to play in gardening gloves

Ian Collins:, external At Uni. Had to use someone's Lycra shorts & rugby shirt. Scored with a perfectly executed overhead bicycle kick!