Far from being a more open and competitive Premier League this season, as many in the media had predicted, early indications from the first two rounds of fixtures are that the gulfs between the big boys and the also-rans, and between the also-rans and the never-started-running-in-the-first-placers are actually widening. 6-0 seems to have become the fashionable scoreline as we have witnessed that result in an incredible four out of the first twenty matches played, and when you take a look at the coming weekend’s fixtures, it would seem quite likely that the total will increase further.

Last week, I alluded to the growing problem of player power increasingly taking over the game, with several notable examples occurring during the World Cup, and just two weeks into the new season (or one week if you, like much of the media, believe football only exists in the Premier League), we have seen several further examples of petulant and quite frankly puerile behaviour from some players who really should know better. The retirements from international football of Paul Robinson and Wes Brown were almost laughable as they were hardly likely to be key figures in their country’s future anyway, and were obviously timed simply to cause Fabio Capello maximum embarrassment, and now Charles N’Zogbia has decided that he does not want to play for his club for reasons that include the fact that Wigan did not sign his friend Sekou Baradji, who had been on trial at the club. Quite honestly on current form, if Wigan turned him down, then you can imagine how capable a player he must be. Unfortunately, fining N’Zogbia

Despite the best efforts of Sky, I can’t really remember a much more low key start to a season and a lower level of anticipation for the competitions to come. The negative nature of the much-anticipated World Cup has played a major part in this, with so many matches having featured sides with no ambition other than to pack their defence and hope for the best. Only Germany and Argentina seemed willing to really let loose and produce some entertainment for the fans, but the fact that neither side came very close to winning the tournament probably means that just as many coaches will be willing to adopt a risk-free, negative approach at the next major tournament. Following the attitude on display particularly from members of the French and English squads which emphasised just how ill-disciplined many players are at present, I sense that this may be the season when things could get quite ugly at many grounds as we witness fans’ frustration at players who really couldn’t seem to care less about anything other than