Thoughts on the Premier League 02/06-07

We have two challengers for the title: Manchester United and Chelsea. Then there is the third place team, Arsenal. And then five behind contending for the fourth place spot: Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Birmingham City.

If any of those five teams try the counter tactics that Man-U and Chelsea used to break Arsenal's will, they may be more chaos in the league and one or more of the big four may no longer be a big four team. Next up for Arsenal is Liverpool on Wednesday. Without their striker, El Nino they may try to go big and bully Wenger and his boys. I doubt that is a good complete strategy, they should bide their time and also smash the Gunners with the counter. Good strategy is to use the same strategy again and again against a team until they figure out how to stop it.

The only other teams within this group of 8 that play each other are Aston Villa against Manchester United on Wednesday.

As for regulation. Wolves showed today that they should be in the running for it. They let a 37 year old striker come on the field and take the game from them. They, Pompey (who may not be around in a week) and West Ham have all shown that they deserve to be in consideration.

Next weekend is FA cup time and then the Champions League and Europa Leagues start up again.