The Premier League returns this weekend and that means it is time to bring out the crystal ball again. Last time out I went 7 for 10 and that brought my score for the season up to 20 out of 36 (56%). The weekend after an international week always thoughts up some upsets and this is how I thing that this weeks games will go.

Robin van Persie's new role at the tip of the Arsenal front three is sought to bring more variety to side's attacking play.
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Few would have had Thomas Vermaelen as Arsenal's top scorer in the early stages of the season, not least because he is a defender but the Belgian had also yet to kick a ball in the Premier League before his £10million move from Ajax and who others decided against signing because of his height.

John Terry remains a big doubt because of his groin problem for Saturday's friendly with Slovenia at Wembley, with Steven Gerrard poised to be captain.
Terry trained at Arsenal's London Colney complex on Thursday, but Fabio Capello is unlikely to risk him ahead of Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Croatia, also at Wembley.

• Sir Alex Ferguson will regret not spending more of his Ronaldo cash [Football Corner]

• The LA Times ranks the top European clubs - no big surprises here [LA Times]

• Bolton's Megson and Everton's Moyes get stuck in [In the Stands]

• Berbatov warned by gangster over flithy texts [Off the Post and Dirty Tackle]

• Soccer commercials from around the world [The Best Eleven]

• A look at England's goalkeeping dilemma [The Football Blog]

Unlike the Utd game I'm not going into this one full of optimism. Nothing to do with last week's result though, just the fact I think going to Stamford Bridge is a much tougher proposition. I'll be delighted to come away with a point. A defeat won't be the end of the world.

Chelsea are playing like a well oiled machine at the moment.

12 goals from defense the past two seasons, beat that Vermaelen
Our Funny Feeling Friday selection this week - an unpopular (by fantasy terms), underrated, or out of form player who we think will start producing in the coming weeks is Birmingham's central defensive summer signing Roger Johnson.

I titled our 3-2 win over Bolton as "Don't Be Fooled" for a vast variety of reasons. It all depends on whose slant you've taken on our club over the past few weeks. It could also depend on your own personal view on our club. Either way, analysis is simply that... "just analysis," and to [...]

Liverpool assistant manager Sammy Lee has been warned about his future conduct by the Football Association's Regulatory Commission.
Lee admitted improper conduct after being charged over his conduct towards fourth official Stuart Attwell during the club's defeat to Tottenham on the opening day of the season.

Aston Villa have completed the signing of Ireland defender Richard Dunne after the Premier League ratified his £6million move from Manchester City.
Dunne was unable to finalise his switch to Villa Park on Tuesday despite the paperwork having already been sent off to the Premier League.

Slovenia are no mugs internationally speaking: since independence from the old Yugoslavia in 1991, they reached both Euro 2000 and the 2002 World Cup and they are currently ranked 57th in the world and 31st in Europe (which puts them ahead of Wales!) and they lie third in World Cup qualifying group three, two points behind Northern Ireland with three games left to play.

Ryan Babel's comments just proved what I always suspected – he is not a fighter.
Babel said he was made promises about playing more often this season but he can have no complaints about being left out recently.
He was awful against Spurs and has had so many opportunities but he has failed to deliver.

Is it worse to spit at someone or punch them in their dodgy kidney? Croatia striker Ivan Klasnic has allegedly confessed to his new boss Gary Megson that he did spit at England skipper John Terry - but he claims he only did it because Terry punched him in the kidney. Bolton's new signing had two [..

We're only six games into the season, but much has already become apparent. Under-performers, over-performers, challengers, also-rans, and players and teams to watch for the right and the wrong reasons. Here's a quick look at the most obvious, interesting, and intriguing...

Manchester City

It's already clear they will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

Well, it's 3 points, right? It wasn't the best performance by any means. But we got the win after so many times saying "we were the better team but still lost," I'm much happier when the opposite is true. And as I discussed in the preview yesterday, it's very, very tough to go to Craven Cottage and come out with 3 points.

Just found a very interesting article on The Guardian website discussing this very issue. The author opts for the strict definition of a 'volley', which is not simply when a player "strikes the ball in the air", but when they "strike the ball in the air before it has bounced" put strictly: "a volley occurs when the ball is struck having not bounced since being touched by the previous player".

Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt has backed his side to win the Barclay's Premier League this season.
The Merseyside club have lost two of their opening three matches of the campaign but came from behind to beat Bolton last Saturday.
And Kuyt insists Liverpool are ready to put their indifferent start to the season behind them and mount a strong challenge.

Benitez makes it very clear to this pair that they both have plenty to prove.

Babel has revealed he would be interested in a loan move to Ajax when the transfer window reopens in January, while Riera made only his first start of the campaign at Bolton last weekend.

Benitez insists both players will get chances to shine over the coming months and that it will then be down to them to seize the opportunities which come their way.

The Premier League returns this weekend and that means it is time to bring out the crystal ball again. Last time out I went 7 for 10 and that brought my score for the season up to 20 out of 36 (56%). The weekend after an international week always thoughts up some upsets and this is how I thing that this weeks games will go.

Kevin Nolan has raised the lid on his shock, when he arrived form Bolton in January of this year. Kevin Nolan no closeness at Newcastle when he arrived At Bolton he was used to having the players be very close, and support each other, but he saw none of that at Newcastle when he first arrived.

MLS on Fox Soccer Channel: Chicago - Salt Lake at 9pm. EPL on ESPN2: Liverpool - Burnley at 10am. On Setanta: Manchester City - Arsenal at 10am, Wigan - West HAm United at 6:45pm, and Portsmouth - Bolton at 10:15pm. On Fox Soccer: Stoke City - Chelsea at 10am, Spurs - Manchester United at 12:30pm, and Sunderland - Hull at 5pm.

The performance was not extra special. We've played better this season. Yet we won today. And that too after being 2-0 down within the first 5 minutes. So how did we do it?
Sheer determination. No other way to put it. I wonder how Wenger reacted at half time. Either a manager slaps his players and tells them to get their act together or he goes up to each player and tells them to look in the mirror and repeat the words "I am a damn good player.

Editor's Note: Geoff Reid appears on WVHooligan each week. Today he returns with his weekly series on the life of a Liverpool fan in America. Feel free to leave Geoff a note below.

After four weeks of the English season gone so far, we're already seeing some trends set in with Chelsea topping the league being unbeaten this far, Manchester City setting an interesting tone in their new spending power and with the club not competing in European competition at all it should be interesting in how Mark Hughes can balance the squad and keep everyone happy with rotating.

Ah yes, it's that time again, Carling Cup third round. Click here to see the BBC's usual compendium of statistics of varying degrees of usefulness. Bolton will face West Ham at the Reebok, in what is arguably one of the most high profile ties for this round. It could also be seen as the Fallen From Grace Clubs tie.

...that is the question.
Hull City goalkeeper Boaz Myhill sees no problem with the fans heckling the struggling club.

"I refuse to criticise our fans for booing us off the pitch," said Myhill. "They have followed us all over the place in all kinds of divisions. We'll do better for them next week, we've got to.

26/09/2009Portsmouth - Everton ore 13.45Birmingham - Bolton ore 16.00Blackburn - Aston Villa ore 16.00Liverpool - Hull City ore 16.00Stoke City - Manchester United ore 16.00Tottenham - Burnley ore 16.00Wigan - Chelsea ore 16.00Fulham - Arsenal ore 18.3027/09/2009Sunderland - Wolverhampton ore 17.0028/09/2009Manchester City - West Ham ore 21.

From BBC Sport:

Manchester City defender Tal Ben Haim says he has signed a four-year contract with Premier League rivals Portsmouth.

Pompey, currently bottom of the table after losing all four league games, have not confirmed the deal, but Ben Haim is relishing a move to the club.

Unfortunately due to imaging rights I can not post a picture of our new signing Ivan Klasnić. A brief biography for those who don't know: Klasnić gained fame at FC Pauli in his hometown of Hamburg. In 2001 he transferred to Werder Bremen, gaining quite a fan following and the nickname the Killer (which can't be a bad thing).

So far this Premier League season, what would you say have been the biggest surprises?

We're only four matches in and there are plenty of talking points. I tend not to get too over-excited during the beginning of the season especially because there's a long way to go. But for me the biggest surprises have been how well Manchester City have started the season.

PAUL ANDERSON, Orrell Park
Should anyone out there still actually be backing our American owners surely the moment the transfer window slammed shut on Tuesday was the final insult and enough to make them lower their star-spangled banner.
The most deceptive statistic of the season so far shows that Liverpool were the second biggest spenders in the league.

In these sickening economic times, finding enough fans to fill your stadium can be difficult. Which is why Bolton Wanderers have decided to expand their search for new seat fillers beyond the borders of their own city and into those of their rivals namely, and curiously, Blackburn.

From the Lancashire Telegraph:

The initiative, also being run in Manchester and Bolton, is inviting people to nominate "community champions".

Stuff to read while you say, <em>"it's a friendly, yes, but three goals in four minutes in an int'l fixture is pretty piss poor"..... The ""HABs" of the England feminine edition. (Independent) The pain of World Cup failure. (Scotland WCB) Bolton offer free tickets in Blackburn. This should go well.

Newcastle United's local coach Alan Thompson, who played at Newcastle, Bolton, Aston Villa, Celtic, Leeds and Hartlepool during his excellent playing career, seems to have made the transition to caoch like a duck to water these last 12 months. Alan Thompson while at Celtic Alan joined Newcastle last July, when Kevin Keegan was still at the [.

A Robbie Fowler moment of magic secures North Queensland Fury their first ever victory in the Hyundai A-League. Fowler scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Sydney FC at the SFS on saturday night.The former Kop 'Fat God' latched onto a through ball and smashed a brilliant looping shot past Bolton from 25 metres out.

From Mark Hughes:

"We have high hopes for Vladi. He knows he is still very early in his development, when he came out of the Academy last year I think it was all a little bit too much for him. He found the step up difficult to negotiate initially.

"But, we knew we had a talented boy on our hands.

Portsmouth goalkeeper David James believes that Pompey have enough quality in their current squad to survive in the Premier League. Five games into the season Portsmouth find themselves rooted to the bottom of the table with five losses. On Saturday Portsmouth hosted Bolton at Fratton Park and suffered to a 3-2 loss.

Hello my dears, I hope you had a lovely weekend. Obviously you could have nothing but as Bolton had their first win in 10 league matches (since April, v. Boro for those of you counting). If you missed the game here are the highlights. Now onto actual analysis instead of me just blabbering on.

So I actually did get time to do a preview, you lucky ducks! I've used the handy BBC Premiership Predictor, a wonderful piece of web design where you can enter your expected results and see how it affects the table. Perfect for wasting time if you're at work/school and don't actually want to do something (I am a champion procrastinator, in fact I should be doing math homework as I type this).

It's difficult to know where to start on this one. There were some encouraging things in Saturday's match, but the depressing things definitely outweighed them. You can view limited highlights (I use the term loosely) here, I'm trying to find the full ones and I'll update the post when I do.

One of the best chances for the Wanderers was scuffed by Gary Cahill, he headed a cross from Matty Taylor right over the bar.

12:30pm, live in the US on FSC
Last 4 head-to-head:
3-0 Liverpool (a) 05.09.09
0-0 (h) 12.01.08
4-0 Liverpool (h) 03.05.08
0-1 West Ham (a) 01.30.08
Last three matches:
Liverpool: 1-0 Debrecen (h); 4-0 Burnley (h); 3-2 Bolton (a)
West Ham: 0-1 Wigan (a); 0-0 Blackburn (a); 3-1 Millwall (h)
Goalscorers (league):
Liverpool: Benayoun, Torres 3; Gerrard, Johnson, Kuyt 2; Ngog 1
West Ham: Cole, Noble, Upson 1
Referee: Andre Marriner
Guess at a squad:
Reina
Johnson Carragher Skrtel Insua
Lucas Mascherano
Kuyt Gerrard Benayoun
Torres
Three games in one week usually leads to rotation in a Benitez side, but we saw the same XI against both Burnley and Debrecen.

Arsenal returned to winning ways, Burnley continue to surprise while bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth's woes show no signs of abating.
Review
Team Played Goal Difference
Points
1 Chelsea 6 12 18 2 Man Utd 6 9 15 3 Liverpool 6 7 12 4 Man City 5 5 12 5 Aston Villa 5 5 12 6 Tottenham 6 2 12 7 Arsenal 5 9 9 8 Sunderland 6 0 9 9 Burnley 6 -5 9 10 Stoke 6 -2 8 11 Birmingham 6 -1 7 12 Wolverhampton 6 -3 7 13 Everton 5 -3 6 14 Fulham 5 -3 6 15 Wigan 6 -8 6 16 West Ham 5 -1 4 17 Bolton 5 -2 4 18 Blackburn 5 -4 4 19 Hull 6 -8 4 20 Portsmouth 6 -9 0