Top of the posts: Maradona tops the league

Roll up, roll up! Once more, it’s time to dive headfirst into the futuristic world of the Independent’s stats servers and rescue our weekly list of the most popular blog posts. It’s like Tron in there, but with more Larry Ryan and less Jeff Bridges.

1. ‘Bush is a murderer’, ‘Pele is gay’, and Platini is, well, ‘French’ by Simon Rice

2. Florida Church planning to burn Qurans on 9/11 by Tom Mendelsohn

3. Jose Mourinho’s trend of poor signings continues with Khedira by Patrick Rennie

4. Is President Obama actually a harbinger of the Apocalypse? by Tom Mendelsohn

5. George Osborne’s Irish blindness by Ben Chu

6. It may be ‘Grim up North’ but at least we’re not bitter by Catherine

7. The Miracle Beer Diet by Rob Williams

8. The public are still paying for the banks to function remotely normally by Sean O’Grady

9. Are we really this stupid? by Matilda Battersby

10. Nothing Tastes As Good As Thin Feels? by Catherine

And as the ongoing mud wrestling match for the coveted title of the Indy’s top blogger takes a dramatic twist this week (John Rentoul is on holiday but still picking up hits for earlier posts), we’ve got a new name at the top of the chart…

1. Simon Rice (4)

2. Tom Mendelsohn (3)

3. Catherine (NE)

4. Patrick Rennie (NE)

5. Sean O’Grady (NE)

6. Matilda Battersby (6)

7. Ben Chu (9)

8. Larry Ryan (NE)

9. Rob Williams (NE)

10. John Rentoul (2)

(The image above is a Wordle of the text of our top ten posts this week. Copyright Wordle)

Recent Posts on Notebook - A selection of Independent views -

• Caught & Social: Cast of ‘The Artist’ party all night
• Today from i: Awful gift hall of shame
• HIV orphans in Thailand prepare for the future
• Caught & Social: Stars hungry for more after the Bafta hors d’oeuvres
• Time for a reality check on the Sri Lankan civil war