CHELSEA v MANCHESTER UNITED AGAIN?

Champions Chelsea look unstoppable.Played 3 Premier League matches,won all three,14 goals scored and none conceeded.Wow is that impressive or what?Manchester United also have a top squad and Dimitar Berbatov is starting to look the part.They,like Arsenal,are two points behind,United dropping two late points at Fulham:Arsenal drawing at Liverpool.Arsenal will have a decent season,better I expect than recently,but they might just still be a notch behind the big two as they are now becoming.Long way to go but the signs are there.

WEST HAM'S WRONG CHOICE

Avram Grant may or may not be a good manager.Who really knows? But I thought at the time he was the wrong choice for West Ham.The start hardly proves me wrong.Played 3 lost 3.Bottom of the Premier League with no points and just 1 goal with 9 conceeded.Owners David Sullivan and David Gold usually keep their manager for 6 years.Will this one last six months?

ASTON VILLA NEW MANAGER

Villa have stated that their new manager must have had Premier League experience.Well I suppose Kevin MacDonald has now had that.The players want the care-taker manager to be Martin O'Neill's successor.But they would,wouldn't they?They feel safe with him but his public answers to whether he wants the job hardly fill you with confidence.He has little experience in the transfer market.Overseas managers with no experience over here are obviously ruled out but it still lives a few good candidates home and abroad.Owner Randy Lerner knows he has to get this one right.Martin O'Neill's boots are hard to fill in this role but hardly impossible.

SHOP NOW OPEN

ASTON VILLA NEW MANAGER

Overseas managers and Kevin MacDonald may have been ruled out of the vacant Villa job as manager.The Board say they want a manager with previous Premier League experience.Of course the likes of Gerard Houllier would qualify but I would be shocked if he got the post.MacDonald would be the players choice-but they would,wouldn't they?-yet his public utterances of being unsure about the post hardly fill you with confidence.Its a good club and a great job..choose carefully Randy Lerner.It could be the most important decision you make for some time.

MARTIN O'NEILL'S TIMING IS AWFUL

Martin O'Neill praises the Aston Villa supporters verbally and then kicks them in the proverbials the next.His resignation just a few days before the start of the season is awful.Owner Randy Lerner claims he and the manager differ on how to take the club forward.O'Neill has by all accounts,had huge control at Villa Park in many areas and until recently conducted all the transfer deals.Lerner has spend something like £148 million in buying and strengthening the club.No doubt that both are responsible for improving Villa.O'Neill is highly paid and obviously a good manager but I believe he should have given notice of his intentions and served some notice time until a new appointment is/was made.The managers are often sacked but if they and the League Managers Association want the level playing field most of them deserve it has to be both ways.If a club has a sensible looking policy and I believe Villa have that then highly paid employees should accept it.Martin O'Neill clearly does not agree.

TREATMENT OF DAVID BECKHAM AWFUL MAN MANAGEMENT

David Beckham has been great for England on and off the field.But for the news of the end of his international career to be told to a massive TV audience before a conversation with Beckham is dreadful mis-management by the coach Fabio Capello.Beckham deserved much better than that.By the way the wrong person might well have been retired here! Capello asked his number two to ask Paul Scholes to re-consider this retirement and go the World Cup.It might have made a huge difference if Capello had travelled to Manchester United and asked Scholes on a one to one basis in person.All this from a man on £6 million a year-the highest paid international coach.

ENGLAND'S FRIENDLY UNDERLINES MY PRE-WORLS CUP PLEA

Before the World Cup I predicted England would not go far but I did not expect them or their manager Fabio Capello to be so poor.I asked that Joe Hart be the goalkeeper but the arguments against me were his so called inexperience.I still maintain he is England's current best.The ball did not look over the line by the way, when the French linesman signalled to the referee to award the Hungary goal.I had pleaded in these blogs as well for Capello to take Adam Johnson to the World Cup because the young Manchester City forward can give you something else..and what about Theo Walcott?The FA cannot afford,it seems,to pay off Capello and while he might be a great European Club manager he sure ain't the right one for England.Steven Gerrard saved his Palma ham last night.We would struggle to win anything under Harry Redknapp or Martin O'Neill ( the right sort of choices) but under Fabio our chances are much slimmer and right now slim is out of town!