Early Season Excitement Makes Way for the Humdrum

About a quarter of the season has passed and it is only now that we can really draw any conclusions as to how the season in the premiership is shaping up. Now as autumn draws in, all those that wrote off Arsenal's chances pre-season are suddenly backtracking wildly as they sit atop of the premiership, unbeaten and having only dropped two points. Manchester United are within spitting distance of Arsenal, despite having been written off just three games into the new season. Liverpool, heavily criticised for much of the opening phase of the campaign, lie in fourth and still remain unbeaten - no pleasing some people we say! Only Chelsea from the so called Big Four have slipped out of the pole positions in the premiership. It would appear though that Chelsea have now returned to winning ways following the shock departure of manager Jose Mourinho. Time will tell whether the reported internal unrest has a terminal effect on Chelsea's chase for honours this season. However, they remain the wild card, as it would be foolish to predict the outcome of the management changes that have happened at Stamford Bridge.

Elsewhere, a "resurgent" Manchester City lying in third and a disappointing Tottenham languishing in 18th position, are the only real surprises this season. Though RTG finds it hard to understand how a "resurgence" can occur after 36 years! So despite the media hype and over reactions in pre-season and after the opening games, RTG believes it is plus ca change in the premiership. Even the usual suspects for relegation seem predictable enough, although Bolton might argue that they occupy a position that they haven't experienced for years. However, as is often the case when an enigmatic manager leaves a club punching above its weight, the whole character and spirit of the club seem to leave with them. In Bolton's case, the new manager Sammy Lee was the early favourite for the managerial sack race. For once it would appear, the pundits got it right.

This premiership predictability is finally taking its toll on attendances. This weekend, there were vast areas of empty seats at all but three premiership grounds. At Villa, for the visit of United; Everton for the Merseyside derby and at Arsenal - although there were empty seats there too, and indeed Arsenal appear to include 'no shows' in their attendance figures. Listening to the various powers that be, you could be excused for thinking that everything was fine and dandy within the premiership. Attendances have been 'steady' and even shown slight rises in some of the last few years. What the figures don't show is that most of these increases are attributable to the increased capacities at Old Trafford and Arsenal's new home, the Emirates. In addition, the promoted trio of Sunderland, Birmingham and Derby have attendances which exceed the trio that made way for them: Charlton, Watford and Sheffield United.

Of course, it is not only the predictability of the premiership that has an impact on attendances. TV saturation, the rising cost of tickets and travelling costs, varying kick off times and, as shown in the past, the failures at international level all have an impact. However, the most serious of these for the future of the game must be the decreasing level of competition and the humdrum predictability that it accompanies. The vast areas of empty seats seen this weekend are common this season and a dramatic turnaround from just a few years ago when it was virtually impossible for a neutral supporter to attend any premiership match - "all tickets sold" was the common mantra. You can take your pick nowadays - of anywhere but the Big Four of course.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• It wasn't a good week to be an English sports fan, with failures in Football, Rugby and Formula1 racing. The Rugby was agonisingly close and gives rise to one of RTG's pet bugbears. Namely the use of video for refereeing decisions. Yet again the technology was found lacking and RTG still can't see for sure how the Mark Cueto "try" decision was made. And didn't it take ages for the decision to be made?
• Following Rob Styles' refereeing gaffes at Anfield earlier in the season, Rafa Benitez and Steven Gerrard launched into vitriolic attacks on the poor man. No surprise though that the pair are muted, when they have been the beneficiaries of even worse decisions this weekend in their fortuitous win over rivals Everton. Just goes to show that the old adage of decisions evening themselves out during the course of the season holds pretty true, though Fulham fans are still awaiting theirs.

Hats Off, Take a Bow (or not)

Player of the Week - Wayne Rooney. Back in the groove with England and Manchester United. We were getting a bit worried there!

Villain of the Week - Steven Gerrard. No not because of his performance in Russia, he was not alone in performing poorly, but because he appeared to get the ref to send off Everton's Terry Hibbert.

Shock of the Week: An Italian Serie A four - four draw. We know the days of catenaccio are long gone, but we are still not used to it.

Cliche of the Week: "we gave a good account of ourselves" from various pundits describing the immediate 60 odd minutes prior to Russia's equalising goal.