Two weeks into the season, the traditional London v Manchester battle for the Premiership is already well under way, but with one or two unfamiliar names included, as Spurs lead the early running, and Man.City find themselves in an encouraging fifth position with two wins out of two. As Aston Villa found out to their cost last season, though, keeping pace with the perennial big boys requires a great deal of stamina together with a squad big enough to cope with suspensions and injuries, so it will be interesting to see how long the challenges of the new upstarts remain potent.

How does this keep happening? I’m not bothered about clearances from the goal line which the referee cannot possibly be in the best position to decide upon, and where the linesman has a split second to make a decision while possibly having two or three players in his line of sight. In those circumstances, the odd mistake is inevitable. However, when a referee is standing centrally positioned 20 yards from goal, it is utterly inexcusable not to be able to tell whether the ball has passed between the posts or wide of the goal.

So, here we go again after what has seemed an interminable summer spent trying to fill the unfillable gap left by the absence of World Cup or European Championship action. Wimbledon doesn’t quite do it for me, largely due to the crowd populated by 50 something housewives complete with HRT patches and minor celebrities on freebie outings. The Open takes care of just four days, and the Ashes series really hasn’t captured the interest of the nation in quite the same manner as in 2005.