The Break

I don’t like to talk much about international football – much less friendlies and meaningless qualifiers, where frankly, the smaller nations fail to beat the big guns especially in Europe. There may be a shock in one or two games, but throughout a league system format, the smaller nations just ain’t going to collect enough points.

Hence, after a long introduction, I would be talking about the EPL. And how the teams have did so far. And perhaps evaluate their key players and summer signings, along with the last minute speculation.

Manchester United are sitting comfortably at the top despite not having Rooney and Scholes for two games (and one game more), Ruud Van Nistelrooy who left for Madrid and a holding midfielder (till Michael Carrick decided to make an early comeback as a substitute). Cris Ron has been under much stick because of his role in Rooney’s dismissal in the World Cup, but he ended up rising to the challenge. Saha and Giggs have been in sensational form, but goals are coming from all over the place – like in the last games Fletcher and Silvestre scored! Man Utd look to be strong again this year, as they also prove their doubters wrong.

Portsmouth are a surprise second and no doubt have the best free transfers of the season so far. Kanu and Sol Campbell have driven a club from relegation candidates to a team which conceded no goals in three games, and whacked oppositions 3-0 and 4-0! Only time will tell if Portsmouth can keep up their form, because even the manager, Harry ‘Houdini’ Redknapp is afraid of the lack of strength in depth of the squad. He did manage to get Manuel Fernandes though – the looks to get a couple more players before the window closes.

Aston Villa has been showing good form early. Taking points from Arsenal then winning against Newcastle and Reading. It’s a great start for the new manager – and I’ll like to see how good that ‘Petrov’ dude is after O’Neil chased him and lost him and chased him again the whole summer long.

Everton are tied with third with new signing Andy Johnson heading the way. I’ve always been a fan of this man, and he is proving he can score once again. The only surprise is how come no other clubs came in for him earlier. And if you see the goal against Watford, Beattie and AJ look to have a good partnership forming up.

Chelsea with a record of lost one won two isn’t too bad unless they consider they spend at least £60m a year on new players! I believe Shevchenko is still finding his feet in the Premierhsip and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him up there or thereabouts at the top-scorers chart at the end of the season.

West Ham picked up a possible 4 of 9 points which is a decent effort and it sees them sit in 6th in the table. They have been playing good attacking football and have only come undone by a spectacular strike by Daniel ‘the Dagger’ Agger.

Liverpool have done well so far. They sit in 7th with 4 points out of a possible 6. Sheffield United was a blip with early-season jitters kicking in, but a dominate performace against WestHam was a prefect remedy. Signings Fabio Aurelio, Jermaine Pennant and Daniel ‘the Dagger’ Agger have started to impress while Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt have shown glimpses of why Rafa bought them. Riise and Crouch are showing encouraging signs while Gerrard, Gonzalez and Alonso have yet to pick up their form of this season yet though, so I feel the best of Liverpool is yet to come.

Bolton have had a decent start to the season too. With Anelka now in their ranks, they look to have more talent on the field. They can improve though, the only thing good about their performances have been an Ivan Campo wonder strike which will compete with the Dagger for early goal of the month.

Man City overcame a early thrashing by the defending champions to record a draw against in-form Portsmouth and win against Arsenal. Though Arsenal were rubbish on that day, the defensive pairing of Richard Dunne and Sylvain Distin seem to be getting more and more formidable as the season progresses. Good thing Distin didn’t leave!

Fulham somehow overcame a torrid start to their campaign after being walloped by Man Utd 5-1. Jimmy Bullard has been rescuing them – saving a draw and snatching a win. Coleman showed great vision in snapping him up just after last season ended. Let’s just hope the rest of his team can be on par with the on-form midfielder.

That’s the top ten of the league so far. We definitely expected Arsenal and Tottenham to be there, but we’ll have to look at them next time when we review the bottom half of the table while this international break gets moving on!