I'm pretty confident about the first 3, but I think 4th 5th and 6th places are a bit of a lottery.....Liverpool actually have a good looking team and probably the manager to deliver. Man C have spent heavily in the transfer market, but as we all know you can't buy a team and with the size of the squad I forsee some major strops this season. As for Spurs I actually think they finished where they deserved last season and they now have a more balanced squad, and love him or hate him, as far as managerial skills are concerned, Pinocchio's been round the block a few times

Blackpool for the Champions League?  Unbelieveable start for them (Although no chance in hell that it will last) Chelsea looking onimous.

Good answer.

Good observation from a Citeh blogger. Mancini needs to wake up fast tactically. If you're playing away from home be more cautious by all means - but not to the point where you employ three defensive midfielders. But for an inspired performance from Hart City would have been trounced yesterday. David James? Who he?

http://mancityblues.com/newsblog/index.php/2010/08/15/roberto-this-is-the-premier-league-not-s

Correct to a point, except who, apart from their fans, cares about them either?

And no foreign holidays to Japan, Thailand and China either?

Ahhh, you'll have missed the plethora of 'big four' shirts the sheep would be wearing out of undying love to a team they'll never visit.

Well done Sky. Murderers of modern English football.

I know, I just saw Forest vs. Leeds

A typical, pointless comparison from you where none was needed or indeed relevant (though I think it makes you feel, if not look, superior)

The more people like you defend the Premier League the more they'll get away with it. How many of those players are going to help any of the home international teams develop?

And if you really didn't enjoy that Forest Leeds game then you're not a football fan. You're a glory fan. I mean Spurs. Might as well be Leeds or Forest for all they're going to win. Cannon fodder for the behomoths.

Actually, I was bemoaning the lack of quality in the game. But then I was (unfairly perhaps) comparing it to yesterday's game (Spurs vs Citeh) where all those foreigners were on display for Spurs - players of course who will never ever get into the England, or indeed Irish and Welsh teams.

If you think the Forest/Leeds game had no quality in it then you genuinely DON'T know anything about football. Did you really watch it?

That game was a great example of what the Championship is all about. Fast tempo passing and movement from front to back and side to side. Huge commitment from players and fans alike and the sort of game that any neutral who understands football would enjoy watching.

Or of course you could watch the Chelsea game yesterday which was a sickening reminder of what an awful league the Prem is and why.

I have to correct Simon on an earlier comment - It's not "big four" it's big two, and even that title is self appointed.

Enjoy your chase for the Europa League with the other giants such as Sunderland and Fulham...

There's an awful lack of quality in most Premier League games. Even this one now there's precious little inspiration, though obviously the passing is better.

But you make the point very well about the foreign contingent. Ultimately they're there because of the money which Sky brought in. That hurts the national game, and lays the foundations for performances in South Africa and the like.

That's why I hate it. It may offer some decent entertainment from time to time, but it isn't a COMPETITION. It's a closed shop, and if and when we ever get back I dare say that my regular attending days will be over.

Oh, and you never know who's going to win. Not just the indivudual games, but the league and the 5 places of merit below it. How often can that be said about the Prem? Individual games: not often. League: never

I made this exact point last night when a Rovers supporting mate of mine said I'd love it if we got to the Prem. I can say with hand on heart that I genuinely would hate it. It is so sad that promotion to the Prem is seen as a necessity to survive financially nowadays.

My every other week trips to the gate would be over too. I don't get a season ticket very often because I can't gaurantee being able to make enough games for the finiancial gain, so I pick and choose. If we get to the Prem the ground will be sold out in season tickets and I wont be held to ransom as a matter of principle

Jovanovic there for Liverpool. Even worse than Bradley Johnson's shooting. I mean is there really no home player better than that?

I did actually watch the game and stand by my earlier comments. If you reckon that game was fast paced then you do really need to see a man in a white coat. I assume you didn't watch Spurs vs. Citeh. That was genuine fast pace.

As for the Chelsea game I didn't see it, so I can't comment.

As for the Europa League, I'm not really bothered about that. If we crash out of the CL I only wish we could avoid having to play in the EL. It's irrelevant, much like the FA Cup is fast becoming.

That's something you'd better ask Liverpool.

On an amusing note - Joe Cole red carded. A clear sign he's done bugger all to that point.

The men in the white coat are heading one way, and that's your way.

And surely you've proved both our points. The FA Cup is irrelevant. The Europa League is irrelevant. Obviously the League Cup is irrelevant. So what has Sky done alongside greedy chairmen and the Premier League head honchos? Killed off half the game in preference to what? Competitions that virtually no-one can win.

By theh way. Forest v Leeds, and Norwich v Watford the week before, knocks seven shades of cr*p out of the borefest that's on now. Livened up, ironically, by an Englishan getting sent off. That was criminally stupid on Cole's behalf. But then he's one of the best we've supposedly got and he's average at best on the world stage.

Martin Tyler just called it a 'straightforward' first half. Sky speak for utter rubbish.

And I stand by my earlier comments. If you didn't think that was fast paced, particularly the first half hour, then your footballing knowledge is questionable.

No, of course I didn't watch the Spurs game. It doesn't fit my remit of games that I find enjoyable. Most of the Prem is included in my list of pointless games I wont watch. I'd actually rather watch Wolves v Blackpool or Stoke v WBA than the lovey media simpering crap that is on at the moment.

I was talking about next season for the Europa League, not when you bust out this year.

Can you honestly not see how ridiculous it is that any team in that league judges success, not on winning the league, but in qualifying for a pointless european competition? Or, possibly in your case, sneaking into the CL again? You know you have no chance whatsoever of winning the league. Does that not annoy you? Does that not make you feel as if the whole thing is a closed shop farce?

Ask The Premier League and their lapog fans. Blinded to the truth because they're drugged to the eyeballs on hype over delivery.

That was an utterly awful half of nothingness.

You should add the media to the charge sheet - the same media that has perpetually extolled the virtues of Stevie G et al to the point where they have collectively believed their own hype. That's why the England team imploded at the World Cup - not because of Capello nor indeed the Premier League.

Lot of negativity here today from guys who have little in interest in the premiership !! Anyway moving on Cole got a deserved red card a very poor challenge. First half has been pretty muck a stale mate with Arsenal seeing more posession but with Liverpool having a header cleared off the line.. Same old Arsenal tho so far great to watch nice keep ball neat passing but powder puff up front. Posession needs to be turned into goals !!!