The Premiership season is only days old, but all of a sudden the world is wall to wall football. Finally. Thankfully.

Two matches featuring new sides are on tap for today. I will not watch Tottenham play Sheffield United tonight. Promise. Call the bookies now and throw the money at Spurs. They will win today. They really are much better than that first match. That was my fault.

I will watch West Ham and Watford instead. Watford are going to struggle for any points at all this season. An absolute sure bet for relegation. West Ham have managed to do things the right way. Despite the financial knock when they went down, and actually needing a bit of good fortune to win promotion when they did, they have built up a solid team again. On an aside worth mentioning concerning West Ham, I recently watched the movie ‘Green Street Hooligans’. It’s not much in the way of a football movie, but warrants a look if only to give the uninitiated a look at the firm culture that once abounded in England.

Lovely Ipswich will surely notch a win today. Unfortunately, it’s in the Carling Cup against lowly Peterborough instead of league competition, so it’s not going to move them out of the drop zone. Still, at this point, I’ll take anything.

Desperate Manchester United are just about to get slapped for topping-up with the whole Owen Hargreaves situation. Bayern Munich says he’s not for sale, and that’s that. Stirring that mess, trying to steal the newly popular Hargreaves isn’t going to be helpful. That, and a loss or two, could start the troubles at Old Trafford.

As an added treat, the second leg of some Champions League qualifiers take place today as well. The disreputable AC Milan will officially get back into the competition proper after tonight. Also, suddenly financially stretched, Liverpool are in Kiev to face Maccabi Haifa. The Ukraine deemed a much safer place to host the match than Israel, despite the cease-fire that has already been going on for many, many, many hours now. A loss by ‘Pool will bring about some worry for the one side that can challenge Chelsea back at home–and their form has been decidely hit or miss so far. No time for a slip.