The Italian Serie A since yesterday has an unexpected leader: Udinese Calcio. After the amazing 4th place of the last year Francesco Guidolin's team is now at the top of the league despite the selling of many foundamental players during the last summer market.

Players like Gokhan Inler, Alexis Sanchez and Cristian Zapata have been sold for more than £ 60 millions and replaced with less expensive players such as Gabriel Torje ( £ 5 millions from Dinamo Bucaresti) and Danilo Larangeira (form Palmeiras).

An interesting tie awaits at the Stadio Friuli on Saturday afternoon as Udinese play host to Novara. A quick glance at the table (Udinese are 2nd, Novara 16th) might suggest that this should be a routine victory for the home side but there are plenty of potential twists that could make the tie anything but straightforward.

Group ATottenham Hotspur FC (ENG)
FC Rubin Kazan (RUS)
PAOK FC (GRE)
Shamrock Rovers FC (IRL)
Group B
FC København (DEN)
R. Standard de Liège (BEL)
Hannover 96 (GER)
FC Vorskla Poltava (UKR)
Group C
PSV Eindhoven (NED)
Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC (ISR)
FC Rapid Bucureşti (ROU)
Legia Warszawa (POL)
Group D
Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR)
S.

The draw for the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League group stage was made in Monaco today. 2009 winners Atlético de Madrid are arguably the biggest club involved in this season's competition and they will have been relatively pleased with a draw which placed them in Group I alongside Italian Champions League drop-outs Udinese Calcio, French side Stade Rennais and Swiss side FC Sion.

That's more like it.

I expected a tough start with the hosts pressing Arsenal into a defensive shape but the Gunners surprised me and probably the Friulani as well when they came out in a very positive, energetic, and confident mode.

Walcott forced Handanovic into a good save in the second minute and that set the pattern for the opening minutes.

A lot has happened in the last day or two. Nasri's move has been officially announced, Wilshere suffered a relapse (anyone else worried – perhaps unjustifiably – that he will be this season's Vermaelen?), and the summer's most believable, intriguing, albeit a tad dramatic story claimed there was a rift between the board and the manager.

So, was this a lucky, undeserved win or was it winners finding a way to get a result when not playing particularly well?

I think neither statement does justice to such a game and would reflect more on the attitude of the opinion holder rather than the match itself.

As expected, this was an open game with both sides coming out with a positive attitude.

Here we are; first home game of the new season and the second of the five massive fixtures this month.

The start wasn't as good as one would have liked but it wasn't as bad as many had feared either. Things could be a lot worse than a hard fought draw in the opening game away from home which included a strong defensive performance.

Newcastle (A) – Udinese (H) – Liverpool (H) – Udinese (A) – Manchester United (A)

Five games in 16 days, each with its unique degree of significance. I don't like dramatizing the consequences of each match, especially at the start, but one gets the feeling, before the end of August Doodh ka doodh, paani ka paani ho jayega.

UEFA Champions League play-off round

Champions route
Wisła Kraków (POL) v APOEL FC (CYP)
Macabi Haifa FC (ISR) v KRC Genk (BEL)
NK Dinamo Zagreb (CRO) v Malmö FF (SWE)
FC København (DEN) v FC Viktoria Plzeň (CZE)
FC BATE Borisov (BLR) v SK Sturm Graz (AUT)
League route
Odense BK (DEN) v Villarreal CF (ESP)
FC Twente (NED) v SL Benfica (POR)
Arsenal FC (ENG) v Udinese Calcio (ITA)
FC Bayern München (GER) v FC Zürich (SUI)
Olympique Lyonnais (FRA) v FC Rubin Kazan (RUS)

Udinese currently occupy the fourth position in Serie A, leading challengers Roma, by two points. If they stay in this position, they'll qualify for next season's Champion's League; albeit in the preliminary qualifying round. This would be a remarkable success for a team, who are not regular features on Europe's grandest stage.

The Italian Job Atletico Roma 1-2 Gela, Serie C1 (16:04:11)AS Roma 2-3 US Citt di Palermo, Serie A (16:04:11)SSC Napoli 1-2 Udinese Calcio, Serie A (17:04:11) Belgian Stephane Lievens living the dream in Italy.... When we booked our Easter family holiday last year, we settled for a trip to Japan. However, due to those circumstances, we were forced to cancel that one at short notice and rebook

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's injury-time equalizer salvaged a 4-4 draw for Serie A leader AC Milan against Udinese at the San Siro on Sunday. Milan went behind 3-1 in the second half courtesy of two goals from Serie A top scorer Antonio Di Natale. However, a Mehdi Benatia own goal and Alexandre Pato's second goal of the match [.