All right, after the initial stretch of EPL, let us now take a look at some (shallow) review from me.

On general form, Derby is bottom as expected. But look who else is in relegation zone – Bolton and Tottenham! I had expected Bolton to start struggling after Big Sam left the club, but such immediate disaster wasn’t exactly expected. But if such scenario is anticipated, that of Tottenham dwelling here shouldn’t have been. With a squad that slowly amass a semblance of some stars, Tottenham had been in the hunt to push into the elites of EPL for the past 2 seasons. Come this season, they have only now gathered 3 points against Derby, and draws with Bolton and Fulham, who inevitably, lies just 1 position above Tottenham.

No surprises there, Fulham and Wigan are amongst teams I believe would perform with a degree of struggle. What surprised me is the meteoric rise of Man City and Newcastle. In Man City, it really came as a shock that they took almost zero time to gel as a team. In Newcastle, the defence appears to have been somewhat sorted, and they could put them in a much stronger position to challenge.

Now about the Big 4. Yes the world is shocked by the departure of Jose Mourinho from Chelsea. Now it appears the team faces an uphill battle to challenge for the title the longer their star players are out with injuries. Normally you would expect a Chelsea team to have more than enough cover, but at this point of time, Avram Grant is likely to fail in motivating the “fringe” players.

Now in Liverpool’s case, it is all the same with tinkerman. Week in week out, Liverpool produces performances of supremely varied quality. And this could hurt in their hunt for a first title in god knows how many years. On the other hand, Arsenal had been firing on all cylinders despite losing their supposed talisman to secure top position. Perhaps it was too early for pundits to write them off just a couple months ago.

Finally on Man Utd, a shaky start to the season was soon banished on the back of consecutive clean sheets and grinding out wins while in shaky form. This is such an important attribute to have, the resilience to get maximum points when you are playing badly. Because we all know the quality of Man Utd when they start to find some semblance of rhythm. Its still early days yet and the table could change drastically. But before I close off, I might as well alert you to some players to scrutinize (not like you didn’t already know who!)

Arsenal – Francesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Adebayor
Chelsea – Michael Essien
Man City – Kasper Schmeichel, Micah Richards, Martin Petrov
Man Utd – Patrice Evra
Middlesbrough – Stewart Downing
Sunderland – Craig Gordon
Tottenham – Gareth Bale