It’s only the first week of the Premier League but we’ve already had a team win by six, a promoted team win 4-0 on the road, 3 red cards, an “I didn’t see it” from Arsene Wenger and a Steve Bruce blast at a ref, so, all in, not a bad start.

Many punters and especially West Brom fans will be hoping that Chelsea’s 6-0 drubbing of the Baggies is down to first day rustiness and not an indication of the gap between top and bottom in the Premier League, although that annoying little voice in your head says otherwise.

Not that West Brom helped themselves much with defending that would have seem them get a pasting in the Championship let alone the Premier League. You’d think if there was one thing that you would set out to do well when playing away at Stamford Bridge it’s defend and getting bodies behind the ball. Or even, line up a wall properly at freekicks. Okay, that’s three things not one but they all seemed beyond West Brom.

And no bookings for West Brom, how can you keep your cool when you are being absolutely hammered? Maybe it’s all part of the Baggies master plan to get an Europa Cup berth through the fair play route.

Thank goodness for Blackpool, then, 4-0 away at DW, a fairytale start but everyone involved with the Seasiders seems to be keeping their feet firmly on the ground. The win saw bookies slash Blackpool’s odds of winning the premiership from 10,000 – 1 to 2,000 – 1 . So if you put a pound on them before the weekend, give yourself a big pat on the back.

As for Wigan, there’s bad starts and then there’s 4-0 home defeats to promoted clubs. This is a far worse result than West Brom’s and how is it that a team can be that under-done at the start oif the season? Perhaps the whole N’Zogbia saga been a distraction – he’s now been fined 77,000 pounds and has gone on strike.

The answer is probably to ship him out but clearly this performance shows that they are in desperate need of the temperamental Frenchman.

One other reason the Lactics might have let in four – no Titus Bramble any more – the popular defender leaving in July for Sunderland. But the Black Cats gave up a 2 goal lead to Birmingham, so perhaps that’s not the answer.

So, that’s Scot Carson, England goalkeeping hopeful, shipping 6 at Stamford Bridge and Chris Kirkland, England hopeful shipping 4 at the DW Stadium, what about former England incumbent Robert Green? Well he saw 3 go past him in the game against Villa. Good win for the Villans considering Martin O’Neill walked out during the week.

James Milner scored and generally had such an outstanding game that the boos turned into a standing ovation at the end of the game. It would be good to see him realise that going to City might not be the best move for his career.

Mind you, it could depend on who takes over the coaching job at Villa. Talk in the last couple of days of Maradonna expressing an interest in the vacant position at Aston Villa, most of it, it has to be said coming from Maradonna’s agent. The only man ever to look good in a shiny suit apparently “loves the english countryside” but given that Argentina’s qualification for the World Cup was fraught, that Maradonna showed no tactical nous when faced with Germany and the English fans still haven’t forgiven him for the “hand of god” goal this has to be a longer shot than Blackpool’s odds of winning the premiership.

Well, it wasn’t just the English goalkeepers who had torrid times at the weekend. Tim Howard inexplicably dropped the ball right at the feet of Blackburn forward Kalinic – although Everton deserve every bit of bad luck they get when wearing possibly the worse kit ever to be let loose on an English football pitch. Unless it’s for charity, men in pink is never a good look.

The other major goalkeeping blunder was Pepe Reina whose mishap in the 91st minute gifted Arsenal an equaliser in a hugely entertaining game at Anfield and if Liverpool fans can put that disappointment to one side (admittedly a difficult task) there are a huge number of positives in this game, not least the continued form of Ngog.

What made Reina’s blunder worse was that he had been solid all afternoon and had pulled off a great save from Tomas Rosicky only a couple of minutes before. But he, like most modern keepers, are really vulnerable with crosses. If that had been Peter Schmeichel coming for that cross there wouldn’t have been a player standing-up within 10 yards of the ball. Why have modern keepers lost the art of coming for the cross?

Is anything to be read into the fact that Hodgson has completed the signing today of 28 year old Australian no 2, Brad Jones? Probably not. It seems pretty obvious that he is going to Anfield as Reina’s back-up.

Not the case for Reina’s opponent, Arsenal’s Almunia. With the Mark Schwarzer transfer still bubbling away it seems that Shay Given might be an Arsenal target as he was relegated to the bench for City’s opening game against Spurs. As good as Schwarzer is, Given would be a far better bet for Arsenal. Younger too.

Schwarzer might just want to quietly go andwithdraw his transfer request

And, of course, it’s unlikely that Given will be getting game time any time soon with Joe Hart bucking the English keeper trend and having a monumental game at White Hart Lane with a performance that left many Spurs fans scratching their heads. Spurs desperately unlucky not to have wrapped up a win by half time but Harry Rednapp more than happy with the performance and Tottenham looking to be in good form going into their Champions League 1st leg playoff against Young Boys in Switzerland.

As for City, Mancini will hope this was just rustiness and not a sign of things to come with his expensive team unable to show the fluidity and cohesiveness of their opponents. And how expensive are Man City? Just look at the bench for Saturday’s game : Given, Zabaleta, Lescott, A Johnson, Vieira, Adebayor and Jo. That’s what money buys you, isn’t it? It’s not necessarily the starting 11 it’s the bench

(And perhaps James Milner might like to talk to Joleon Lescott about how a move to City can impact on your chances of playing for your country.)

Interestingly, City completed the signing of Balotelli but presumably not in time for him to make the teamsheet for Saturday’s game. Adebayor, already on the bench and unhappy with the arrival of a new striker, could possibly join Craig Bellamy (now banned from the City training ground) in leaving Eastlands. Why Mancini would want to risk losing such a proven Premier League striker as Adebayor is baffling.

With takeover talk at Blackburn and a substantial transfer kitty for Big Sam and two weeks left in this window, could we see Adebayor move across Greater Manchester to Ewood Park?

Other results, well Wolves beat Stoke 2-1 in a sort-of derby and Monday night’s game saw Man Utd comfortably beat Newcastle 3-0, again Paul Scholes getting the plaudits but also Berbatov, scoring and seemingly enjoying Rooney’s downturn in form. If both of these players can find form at the same time they could be the scourge of any Premier League defence.

Too early to look at the table (although Blackpool in 2nd does bring a smile to the face) but suffice to say that Chelsea are top and West Brom are bottom and nobody really expects that either of those two teams will move very far away from those positions.