The Premiership kicked of this weekend and, at the end of it, football betting enthusiasts are no nearer any insight into how the top four will shuffle themselves this season. Manchester United were unconvincing against a probably temporarily resurgent Newcastle United while Chelsea gave a pretty self-assured account of themselves in their rout of Portsmouth. Arsenal and Liverpool trod water in their encounters with West Brom and Sunderland.

Who Will Split The Premierships Top 4

Sports journalists and commentators have been polled on their opinion of which team would be favourite to unseat one of the top four and were roughly split between Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa. Spurs put in a pretty dire display in their encounter with Middlesbrough but Villa were very sure of themselves in beating Manchester City 4-2. This was no doubt largely due to the genius of Martin O’Neill, the best manager in the Premiership and the man who should now be in charge of the England squad. He has struggled in putting his team together in the face of the uncertainty surrounding his captain, Gareth Barry who, despite being under contract, wants to go to Liverpool.

O’Neil, The Thinking Man’s Ferguson

O’Neill laments the influence that the new player power is having on league football given that most players are obsessed with the Champions League. While there’s a scramble to get into the top four, managers of the other sixteen clubs are going to be struggling to sign the quality of player that can help them break into the inner circle of Champions League contenders. It’s a modern day Catch 22 and it’s hard for football fans to see how this pattern will be broken while it’s within the hands of players and agents to break their contracts whenever they feel like it.